The American Medical Association (AMA) is undertaking a new national study, supported by the College and 173 health care organizations, to collect data on physician practice expenses. You or your practice may be randomly selected to participate – and your participation is critical to ensure allergy/immunology services are reimbursed properly in the future. The Medicare physician fee schedule, maintained by CMS and used by many other payers currently relies on 2006 cost information to develop practice expense relative values and the Medicare Economic Index to formulate the reimbursement for your services.
Here are some survey details:
- A relatively small number of allergists and allergy practices will be surveyed. Your participation is therefore extremely important to our specialty.
- Two types of information will be collected: practice financial information and physician direct patient care hours.
- The subject line for the Financial Information Survey email will read, “American Medical Association requests your input on physician practice expense and patient care hours.” It will be sent to financial experts in the practice and will come from PPISurvey@mathematica-mpr.com.
- The subject line for the Physician Hours Survey invitation email will read, “Please help to update accurate physician payments.” This email will be sent to physicians and will come from PhysicianHoursSurvey@mathematica-mpr.com or may be relayed from someone in your practice.
- The contracted survey company, Mathematica, will offer a help desk – details will be provided in their email message.
The aim of the Physician Practice Information (PPI) Survey is to better understand the costs faced by today’s physician practices to support physician payment advocacy. The study will serve as an opportunity to communicate accurate financial information to policymakers, including members of Congress and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).
The AMA has contracted with Mathematica, an independent research company with extensive experience in survey methods as well as health care delivery and finance reform, to conduct the study. Email messages from Mathematica about the surveys will be sent between July 31 and Dec. 31.
As the U.S. economy and health care system have undergone substantial changes since 2006, including inflation and the widespread adoption of electronic health records and other information technology systems, practice expense payments no longer accurately reflect the relative value of resources that are typically required to provide reimbursement for physician services.
Please be on the lookout for these emails from Mathematica. If you receive them, please participate – and help us gather the necessary data to ensure allergists get the pay they deserve. This is your opportunity to directly impact your reimbursement.
During 2023 you’ve seen several articles about the College’s representation at the AMA and the criteria we need to meet to keep that representation in place. Our partnership with the AMA provides this unique opportunity for the small allergy/immunology sub-specialty to influence reimbursement for medical services. We need to keep this partnership strong. Join or renew your AMA membership today!
The Advocacy Council – ADVOCATING FOR ALLERGISTS AND THEIR PATIENTS.
