Yesterday the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) finalized the 2019 Physician Fee Schedule (PFS), announcing they will delay implementation of changes to physician evaluation and management (E&M) codes until 2021. CMS had proposed to collapse five E&M codes into two, and to streamline physician documentation requirements.

The delay is a win for the thousands of physicians who submitted comments opposing the changes, complaining that the proposal would penalize doctors who see more complex patients. Doctors also expressed concern that the rates assigned to the proposed codes were too low, discouraging doctors from seeing Medicare patients and creating access challenges.

Along with the two-year delay, CMS also raised base rates, and created an additional code for complex visits. These changes are a win for doctors—and provide time for continued lobbying to permanently forestall implementation.

The 2019 rule also includes several other noteworthy changes that were largely lost in hubbub surrounding E&M visit coding, most of which will be well-received by doctors.

At the top of our list: CMS significantly expanded telemedicine coverage, and will now reimburse for telemedicine and telephone visits for brief check-ins, evaluation of patient-submitted images or remote monitoring data, as well as more comprehensive and preventive care visits. This is a substantial step toward increasing access for the two-thirds of Medicare beneficiaries who are ineligible for telemedicine coverage today. 

We will be continuing to make our way through the details of the rule, and sharing our thoughts on its impact for doctors and health systems. In the longer term, it is worth watching whether continued pressure from doctors postpones further action, and whether the administration will enact changes that could upset the physician base—significantly, the 2021 PFS rule will likely drop in the weeks just before the 2020 Presidential election.