This Press Release announced CMS changes as well as an Executive Order signed on Monday, August 3, 2020.

“The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is proposing changes to expand telehealth permanently, consistent with the Executive Order on Improving Rural and Telehealth Access that President Trump signed today. The Executive Order and proposed rule advance our efforts to improve access and convenience of care for Medicare beneficiaries, particularly those living in rural areas. Additionally, the proposed rule implements a multi-year effort to reduce clinician burden under our Patients Over Paperwork initiative and to ensure appropriate reimbursement for time spent with patients. This proposed rule also takes steps to implement President Trump’s Executive Order on Protecting and Improving Medicare for our Nation’s Seniors and continues our commitment to ensure that the Medicare program is sustainable for future generations.”

• CMS is taking steps to extend the availability of certain telemedicine services after the PHE ends, giving Medicare beneficiaries more convenient ways to access healthcare particularly in rural areas where access to healthcare providers may otherwise be limited Improving Rural and Telehealth Access.
• Prioritizing Investment in Preventive Care and Chronic Disease Management - Simplified coding and billing requirements for E/M visits will go into effect January 1, 2021, saving clinicians 2.3 million hours per year in burden reduction. As a result of this change, clinicians will be able to make better use of their time and restore the doctor-patient relationship by spending less time on documenting visits and more time on treating their patients. The proposed adjustments, which implement recommendations from the American Medical Association, help to ensure that CMS is appropriately recognizing the kind of care where clinicians need to spend more face-to-face time with patients, like primary care and complex or chronic disease management.
• As part of its Patients over Paperwork initiative to reduce regulatory burden for providers, CMS is proposing to make some of these temporary changes permanent following the PHE. Such proposed changes include nurse practitioners, clinical nurse specialists, physician assistants, and certified nurse-midwives (instead of only physicians) to supervise others performing diagnostic tests consistent with state law and licensure, providing that they maintain the required relationships with supervising/collaborating physicians as required by state law; clarifying that pharmacists can provide services as part of the professional services of a practitioner who bills Medicare; allowing physical and occupational therapy assistants (instead of only physical and occupational therapists) to provide maintenance therapy in outpatient settings; and allowing physical or occupational therapists, speech-language pathologists and other clinicians who directly bill Medicare to review and verify (sign and date), rather than re-document, information already entered by other members of the clinical team into a patient’s medical record.

Public comments on the proposed rules are due by October 5, 2020.

For a fact sheet on the CY 2021 Physician Fee Schedule proposed rule, please visit: https://www.cms.gov/newsroom/fact-sheets/proposed-policy-payment-and-quality-provisions-changes-medicare-physician-fee-schedule-calendar-year-4

For a fact sheet on the CY 2021 Quality Payment Program proposed rule, please visit:  https://qpp-cm-prod-content.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/1100/2021%20QPP%20Proposed%20Rule%20Fact%20Sheet.pdf

For a fact sheet Medicare Diabetes Prevention Program, please visit: https://www.cms.gov/newsroom/fact-sheets/proposed-policies-medicare-diabetes-prevention-program-expanded-model-mdpp-calendar-year-2021

To view the CY 2021 Physician Fee Schedule and Quality Payment Program proposed rule, please visit:  https://www.cms.gov/files/document/cms-1734-p-pdf.pdf

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