Dear Colleagues and Friends,
At last we have caught up with the economy, and will now get a .1%
reduction in 2011 allowable fees. As you can see (below), the MFP number
gets subtracted from the CPI-U number (both of which are positive
numbers by the way) and this creates a .1 negative number; hence our fee
reduction.
Anyway, here’s the text for those who haven’t seen it.
/The DMEPOS fee schedule amounts are to be updated for 2011 by the
percentage increase in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for all urban
consumers (United States city average) or CPI-U for the 12-month period
ending with June of 2010. Also beginning with CY 2011, section 3401 of
The Affordable Care Act requires that the increase in the CPI-U be
adjusted by changes in the economy-wide productivity equal to the
10-year moving average of changes in annual economy-wide private
non-farm business Multi-Factor Productivity (MFP). The amendment
specifies the application of the MFP may result in an update “being less
than 0.0 for a year, and may result in payment rates being less than
such payment rates for the preceding year”. For CY 2011, the MFP
adjustment is 1.2 percent and the CPI-U update factor is 1.1 percent.
Thus, the 1.1 percent increase in the CPI-U is reduced by the 1.2
percent MFP resulting in a -0.1 percent MFP-adjusted update factor or a
0.1 percent reduction to the applicable CY 2011 DMEPOS fee schedule amounts.
/Wil Haines, CPO
MaxCare Bionics
Avon, IN
