San Francisco, CA – The Division of Workers’ Compensation (DWC) recently issued a notice of public hearing to revise the Official Medical Fee Schedule for Physician and Non-Physician Practitioner Services (Physician Fee Schedule), which can be found at California Code of Regulations, title 8, section 9789.12.1 through 9789.19.
The public hearing is scheduled at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, April 17 in the Auditorium of the Elihu Harris State Building, 1515 Clay Street, Oakland 94612. Members of the public may also submit written comments on the proposed amendments until 5 p.m. that day.
The proposed amendments to the physician fee schedule regulations would eliminate the use of the average statewide geographic adjustment factor and adopt Medicare’s MSA-based locality-specific geographic adjustment factors, known as the Geographic Practice Cost Indices (GPCIs), which Medicare implemented effective January 1, 2017.
Adoption of the new Medicare MSA-based locality GPCIs will improve payment allowance accuracy by reflecting the resources required to provide a service according to specific geographic areas. The proposed amendments also make minor clarifying revisions to the regulations.
The notice and text of regulations can be found on the proposed regulations page.
Source: CA DWC