The COVID‐19 pandemic has ushered in a nearly two-year period of ambiguity.
Editor's Note: This article originally appeared on ECG's website.
The healthcare industry has often been at the forefront of this uncertainty, and provider organizations have had to manage the fallout from each new COVID‑19 outbreak.
Although the impacts on patient care are the most visible, the pandemic’s ramifications are much broader. Changes to the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) in 2021 compounded the impact of COVID‑19 and affected reimbursement, physician and advanced practice provider (APP) compensation, and contractual arrangements.
To understand how organizations are coping with the effects of both COVID‑19 and MPFS changes on provider compensation arrangements, ECG recently surveyed 66 provider organizations.
2021 MPFS Adoption
As of December 2021, only 37% of the surveyed organizations have adopted the 2021 MPFS. Many of these organizations did so to seek budget neutrality through payout rate decreases, threshold increases, or temporary compensation guarantees. Others did so to reward evaluation and management–heavy specialties through a discounted increase relative to the MPFS.
Of the organizations that have adopted the 2021 MPFS, almost 70% have adjusted the compensation plan methodology to conform, at least partially, with the update. For the approximately 30% of organizations that haven’t adjusted their compensation plan methodology, the lack of changes was typically due to a fixed funding pool.
Most survey participants (63%) indicated that they haven’t yet adopted the 2021 MPFS in their provider WRVU calculations, and almost half of these organizations are unsure when they will do so. This is another example of the ongoing uncertainty in the industry, resource constraints due to the pandemic, and overall hesitancy to make the change at this time. Many other respondents indicated they plan to adopt the updated MPFS in their provider contracts in 2022 (22%) or 2023 (27%). Click here to continue>>
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