RBRVS: how new physician fee schedules will work

Abstract

The Health Care Financing Administration's (HCFA's) new Medicare fee schedule for physicians will break physician services into three components: physician work, practice expenses, and malpractice expenses. HCFA intends the new fee schedule to reduce and more equitably distribute Medicare expenditures for physician services. For healthcare organizations, the new fee schedule may mean changes in revenue collections, revisions to coding and billing systems, and greater competition between physicians and outpatient hospital services.