2025 Reimbursement Top Ten Psychologist Medicare Services

The searchable 2025 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) was published 1/1/2025. Happy New Year? This is the latest in the year prior to prices going into effect these have been published, though I suppose one could say this is the earliest in the effective year the searchable databse has been provided. 2025 national reimbursement for …

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Impact of Four Year Phased-In Increase of Work RVUs for Psychological Services

In 2023, successful psychology organization advocacy for much-needed increases in the WORK component of the Relative Value Units (RVU) of key behavioral health services (HCPCS psychotherapy codes 90832, 90834, 90837, Health Behavior Assessment and Intervention [HBAI] services, crisis, family, and group therapy services) resulted in CMS’s adoption of an increase of 19.1% in the work …

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Medicare 2025 Fee Schedule Initial Reactions

Well the Final Rule for the 2025 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) dropped into my email Friday about 4:40 pm. Of course they announce this on a Friday evening. The headline – which should be no surprise – is that the Conversion Factor (CF) will be decreasing by 2.83% from its 2024 value, to $32.35. …

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Health Insurance Industry Watch

22 July 2024         Source:  Herz, G. & OpenAI. (2024). ChatGPT (Version 4.0) [Large language model]. Retrieved from https://www.openai.com/chatgpt. Notes: Enrollment numbers add up to more than 334 million, the estimated U.S. population at the time of this post, due to those with multiple coverage such as Medicare+Medicaid. Adjusting for overlap in coverage, …

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Price Comparison Summary Behavioral Health Services Madison And Related System Locations

The following are prices listed for the six behavioral health services required to be provided by hospitals in a consumer-friendly “shoppable services” search. Prices were retrieved 15 January 2022 on review of these three hospitals and related locations. Location Service SSMHealth St. Mary’s UnityPoint Health Meriter UW 30 Minute Therapy NF PC $154 45 Minute …

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2021 Update – Psychotherapy In Medicare

As with prior updates (e.g., 2019 and 2018, CMS data releases related to utilization tend to be 2 years behind the year of service provision. Data for services in 2019 became available at the end of August 2021, at Data.CMS.gov. The following analyses are for individual therapy sessions only (HCPCS 90832, 90834, and 90837). Psychotherapy plus medication, …

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Hospital Compliance With Federal Price Transparency Requirements: A Review of Madison, Wisconsin Hospitals

Background As of January 1, 2021, hospitals must comply with the “Hospital Price Transparency Final Rule,” requiring them to make their standard charges available to the public. Charges must be provided in two formats: “1. A comprehensive machine-readable file that includes all standard charges for all hospital items and services; and 2. A consumer-friendly display …

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No American Insurance Company Reimbursement Keeps Up With Inflation

Recently I’d tweeted this data-supported proposition and asked to be proven wrong. So far, no one’s done so. There is no American insurance company that has kept up with or exceeded the rate of inflation for reimbursement of any health care service. Especially mental health care. Prove me wrong. pic.twitter.com/c8j5iRsCXO — Gordon I. Herz PhD …

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Update – Psychotherapy in Medicare

I have previously reported about provision of psychotherapy in Medicare, most recently in 2019 and 2018. CMS data releases related to utilization are always at least 2 years behind the year of service provision. Data for services in 2018 became available early in February 2021, and the following analyses are based on those data, available …

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Update #3 Medicare 2021 – “Final” Reimbursement For Psychological Services

With the passage of the Consolidated Appropriations Act December 21, 2020, signed into law six days later, the Medicare Physicians Fee Schedule received an unexpected pardon from the planned, unprecedented 10.2% reduction in the Conversion Factor governing all fees. Instead, the CF was increased from 32.4085 to 34.8931. An additional $3 Billion was allocated to …

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