As you know, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) have issued the preliminary rule on the 2011 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule. Due to the complexity of the changes in the fee schedule, COA will be providing additional information. However, we now have modeled the changes and produced a tool for you to use.

Go to the COA website at http://www.communityoncology.org under Immediate Action Needed to access the tool. COA is providing this tool to allow practices to estimate the impact of the proposed rule on 2011 and 2013 billings. There are two scenarios built into the 2011 and 2013 estimates.

The first scenario is that Congress acts to avert the scheduled 23.5% overall Medicare fee cut effective 12/1/10, the 6.1% cut effective 1/1/11, and any subsequent fee cuts through 2013. In this scenario, the model estimates the impact of the oncology-specific fee cuts to infusion room services and the changes to Evaluation & Management codes.

The second scenario is that Congress does not act to avert both the 12/1/10 and 1/1/11 fee cuts.

The tool simply requires you to enter an estimate of utilization by code. Make sure that the numbers you enter are annual (12 months) estimates. The tool is very easy to use.

If you have any questions about the tool, contact Ricky Newton. If you are interested in aggregating your practice data with a national sample in order to benchmark against other practices, email your practice file completed to Ricky Newton. Indicate in your email how many medical oncologists this covers. You will receive back a national report.