The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has yielded to pressure and removed the “appropriate use criteria (AUC) program for advanced diagnostic services” from the 2024 Medicare physician fee schedule (MPFS).
In a Feb. 15 policy update, CMS urged physicians and other affected parties to make sure their billing staff know about the:
- Rescinding of AUC program regulations
- Pausing of the AUC program for reevaluation
- Elimination of AUC consultation information on Medicare fee-for-service claims.
Implementing the AUC program would have been a time consuming and expensive lift for practitioners.
Here’s a link to an excellent article posted by the Texas Medical Association on the issues associated with the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule.
