2006 proposed fee schedule - American Society of Clinical Oncology

To illustrate this point, as shown in Table 34, the
358
2005 national payment amount in the nonfacility setting for
CPT code 99203 (Office/outpatient visit, new), is $97.02
which means that currently a beneficiary is responsible for
20 percent of this amount, or $19.40. Under this proposed
rule the 2006 national payment amount in the nonfacility
setting for CPT code 99203, as shown in Table 34, is $93.33
which means that, in 2006, the beneficiary coinsurance for
this service would be $18.66.
Very few of the changes we are proposing impact overall
payments and therefore will affect Medicare beneficiaries’
coinsurance liability. Proposals discussed above that do
affect overall spending would similarly impact
beneficiaries’ coinsurance.
For example, we have tried to ensure that the proposal
concerning physician self-referral for nuclear medicine
services would not adversely impact the medical care of
Medicare or Medicaid patients. While we recognize that
these proposed revisions may have an impact on current
arrangements under which patients are receiving medical
care, there are other ways to structure these arrangements
so that patients may continue to receive medically necessary
nuclear medicine services. In almost all cases, we believe
this proposal concerning physician referral for nuclear
medicine services should not require substantial changes in