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CMS-1403-FC
incurred, thereby compelling the group practice to lose
money. Another commenter argued that is “grossly unfair”
to not allow physicians to recover any overhead costs. The
commenter further contended that, although we may be
concerned about physicians who may “pad” their charges with
illegitimate amounts, this does not justify penalizing
providers who incur appropriate and often costly overhead
costs. According to the commenter, it would go against
well-established Medicare policy to not allow physicians to
include legitimate costs in calculating a net charge.
Another commenter stated that many suppliers would incur a
loss, not just fail to profit, if we adopt these “confusing
and hyper-technical rules” are adopted. For example, the
commenter asserted, a billing physician would be prohibited
from billing for the costs incurred when a technician
performs the TC of a test because the physician group may
bill only for the cost of the physician who supervised the
test. The commenter also stated that the proposal
effectively prohibits the payment for qualified technicians
in the performance of the TC of diagnostic tests, or, in
the alternative, requires that physicians who choose to
provide their patients with such tests do so at a loss.
One commenter explained that it is common practice for
physician groups to provide pathologists with office space,
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