2006 proposed fee schedule - American Society of Clinical Oncology

accurate for calculating direct costs than the SMS or
supplementary survey data, we are concerned that there is
such a discrepancy between the refined direct cost inputs
and a recent survey. We will want to discuss this issue
with both the specialty and the RUC to ensure that the
refined CPEP/RUC data accurately reflect the typical
resources needed for these services. However, as we
indicated above, independent laboratories receive only
approximately 20 percent of their total Medicare revenues
from PFS services, and there should not be significant
impact on other specialties from this increase for
independent laboratory services.
328
As discussed in section II.C. of this proposed rule, we
are proposing technical changes to the calculation of the
malpractice RVUs. We are proposing to remove the
malpractice data for specialties that occur less than 5
percent of the time in our data for a procedure code. In
addition, the RUC practice liability workgroup has written
to us recommending several changes to the crosswalks used to
assign risk factors to specialties for which we did not have
data otherwise. We are proposing to accept these
recommendations, and, as also recommended, we are proposing
to use the lowest risk factor of 1.00 for specialties such
as clinical psychology, licensed clinical social work,
chiropractors, and physical therapists. We are also