Medicare Physician Fee Schedule: Get These Updates to Global Surgical Package and Incident-To Billing

Why This Topic Matters

These policy updates can affect how services are billed, how surgical follow-up is treated, and how practices prepare for Medicare compliance and valuation changes. Understanding the scope of the final rule helps readers anticipate operational and reimbursement impacts without relying on outdated proposals.

Article Sections

1. Medicare payment update and MACRA context

   Introduces the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule context for the year and summarizes the broader Medicare payment environment. It also references MACRA and the repeal of the SGR framework.

2. Incident-to billing changes remain stalled

   Reviews CMS discussion of incident-to billing and the status of proposed supervision-related changes. It also addresses compliance themes tied to supervision, provider status, and billing under a supervising physician identifier.

3. Global periods and surgical package policy

   Summarizes CMS proposals and final-rule updates affecting global surgery periods. It discusses the broader policy and operational implications for surgical practices and coding workflows.

4. CMS valuation process for surgical services

   Describes the planned CMS process for collecting information used to value surgical services. It focuses on the timing of the process and the general type of data CMS intends to gather.