Luke Barré, MD, MPH, RhMSUS, has been elected to the American Medical Association’s Relative Value Update Committee. He is the second rheumatologist to hold the seat in recent years and will ensure representation of the specialty during valuation of physician services.
Accurate reimbursement for rheumatology services ensures rheumatologists can run successful practices and provide needed care, but only if they speak up through survey input to explain how much that care costs. Here’s how to participate in the process when rheumatology CPT codes come up for review.
The American Medical Association’s Relative Value Update Committee advises the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services on appropriate reimbursement rates for specialty services. Luke Barré, MD, MPH, RhMSUS, is learning the ropes as the ACR’s newest representative.
Advisors of the American Medical Association (AMA) Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) and Relative Value Update (RUC) Committees play a crucial role in the code creation and valuation process. These positions allow the ACR to have a significant voice in influencing changes and ensuring rheumatology services are effectively represented.
Working with the AMA provides a megaphone to amplify rheumatology’s voice at both federal and state levels. This year is the AMA’s next five-year membership review. Join the AMA or renew your membership now to keep the ACR represented in AMA policy bodies.
Participation in the American Medical Association Relative Value Update Committee surveys contributes to the accurate valuation of rheumatology services.
Selected ACR members will be invited to participate in a survey from the AMA Relative Value Update Committee. If you do, respond by the listed date. Data from these surveys helps set Medicare and other payer reimbursement rates.
Some ACR members will be randomly selected to take an important survey to determine relative values for services in new outpatient consultation codes.
Timothy Laing, MD, will continue to represent the ACR in his third stint on the AMA’s Relative Value System Update Committee, helping determine the relative value of clinical services.
The American Medical Association’s (AMA) Relative Value Scale (RVS) Update Committee (RUC) and Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) Committee currently meet three times a year each to keep the CPT code set up to date, and to review the valuation of all the codes for the physician fee schedule. The two-step meetings of both the CPT Editorial…