2006 proposed fee schedule - American Society of Clinical Oncology

● Consider, in the course of notice and comment
rulemaking, impact projections that compare new proposed
payment amounts to data on actual physician PEs.
Beginning in CY 1999, Medicare began the four year
transition to resource-based PE RVUs. In CY 2002, the
resource-based PE RVUs were fully transitioned.
1. Current Methodology
The following sections discuss the current PE
methodology.
a. Data Sources
There are two primary data sources used to calculate
PEs. The American Medical Association’s (AMA) Socioeconomic
Monitoring System (SMS) survey data are used to develop the
PEs per hour for each specialty. The second source of data
used to calculate PEs was originally developed by the
Clinical Practice Expert Panels (CPEP). The CPEP data
include the supplies, equipment and staff times specific to
each procedure.
The AMA developed the SMS survey in 1981 and
discontinued it in 1999. Beginning in 2002, we incorporated
the 1999 SMS survey data into our calculation of the PE
RVUs, using a 5-year average of SMS survey data. (See
Revisions to Payment Policies and Five-Year Review of and
Adjustments to the Relative Value Units Under the Physician
Fee Schedule for Calendar Year 2002 final rule, published
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