2006 proposed fee schedule - American Society of Clinical Oncology

expected negative update factor for CY 2006, the shifts in
some of the PE RVUs resulting from our proposals could cause
some measure of financial stress on medical practices.
Therefore, we are proposing to transition the proposed PE
changes over a 4-year period. This would also give ample
opportunity for us, as well as the medical specialties and
the RUC, to identify any anomalies in the PE data, to make
any further appropriate revisions, and to collect additional
data, as needed prior to the full implementation of the
proposed PE changes.
During the transition period, the PE RVUs will be calculated
on the basis of a blend of RVUs calculated using our proposed
methodology described above (weighted by 25 percent during CY
2006, 50 percent during CY 2007, 75 percent during CY 2008, and
100 percent thereafter), and the current CY 2005 PE RVUs for
each existing code.
We believe that implementing these proposed changes will meet
our goals to produce a more accurate, more intuitive and more
stable PE methodology.
Now that the direct PE inputs have been refined, we believe
that the proposed CPEP/RUC direct input data are superior to the
specialty-specific SMS PE/HR data for the purposes of
determining the typical direct PE resources required to perform
each service on the PFS. First, we have received
recommendations on the procedure-specific inputs from the
60