DWC Posts Adjustment to Physicians' Fee Schedule

Friday, December 8, 2017 | 3

The California Division of Workers’ Compensation posted an order adjusting the physicians section of the Official Medical Fee Schedule to incorporate changes made by Medicare for 2018.

The order, among other things, incorporates the 1.4% increase in the Medicare Economic Index, which is part of the equation to calculate reimbursement rates under the Resource-Based Relative Value Scale fee schedule.

Senate Bill 863 ordered the DWC to adopt Medicare’s RBRVS model for the workers’ compensation fee schedule in a way that set total payments to be equal to 120% of what Medicare was paying as of July 2012, plus inflation adjustments in accordance with changes to the Medical Economic Index, or MEI.

The order adopting the Physician and Non-Physician Practitioner Services Fee Schedule portion of the OMFS is here.

An explanation of changes that take effect for services provided on or after Jan. 1 is here.

Data files and additional information is here.