2006 proposed fee schedule - American Society of Clinical Oncology

plus current AAP priced drug payments for separately
billable drugs with the current 8.7 percent drug add-on.
The overall impact to ESRD providers in aggregate is
0.5 percent. Among the two separately shown effects, the
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effect of changes to the wage index has the most variation
among provider type but is budget neutral in aggregate. The
effect of change in drug payments contributes most to the
overall effect, but varies little among provider types.
We also note that the proposed revisions to the
composite rate exceptions process will have no impact on
payments to ESRD providers since we have only proposed
changes in process and these changes do not affect which
providers will be eligible for exceptions nor the amount of
the exception.
F. Payment for Covered Outpatient Drugs and Biologicals
As discussed in section II.H. of this proposed rule,
the proposal to pay a reduced supplying fee for each
Medicare Part B oral drug prescription, after the first one,
supplied to a beneficiary during a month is estimated to
reduce total Federal expenditures by $8 million in 2006, and
$30 million over the five-year period, CY 2006 to 2010. The
preamble seeks comment on an appropriate inhalation drug
dispensing fee amount for 2006. The effect on Federal
expenditures of a potential change to the inhalation drug