2006 proposed fee schedule - American Society of Clinical Oncology

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simulated payments only for those ESRD facilities for which
we are able to calculate both current 2005 payments and
proposed 2006 payments.
Due to data limitations, we are unable to estimate
current and proposed payments for 77 facilities that bill
for ESRD dialysis treatments. ESRD providers were grouped
into the categories based on characteristics provided in the
Online Survey and Certification and Reporting (OSCAR) file
and the most recent cost report data from the Healthcare
Cost Report Information System (HCRIS). We also used the
December 2004 update of CY 2004 Standard Analytical File
(SAF) claims as a basis for Medicare dialysis treatments and
separately billable drugs and biologicals. While the
December 2004 update of the 2004 SAF file is not complete,
we wanted to use the most recent data available, and plan to
use an updated version of the 2004 SAF file for the final
rule.