The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will reimburse a greater number of relative value units (RVUs) associated with office-based evaluation and management (E&M) visits, the agency announced recently.

In order to achieve budget neutrality, CMS will reduce the payment per RVU. With this change, CMS is allocating a larger proportion of its total spending to office-based physicians, at the expense of surgeons and hospital-based physicians.

Here’s the rub: organizations that utilize RVUs in their physician compensation arrangements and continue to pay the same 2020 rates per RVU on the increased number of 2021 RVUs will experience a dramatic decline in operating income. Reporting our lead story during this edition of Monitor Mondays is Adam J. Klein, who heads ECG’s Financial Services practice.

Other segments to be featured during the live broadcast include the following:

• Whistleblower Update: Famed whistleblower Mary Inman, partner in the law office of Constantine Cannon, returns to the broadcast to report on two whistleblower cases that have dropped from the radar screen, but nevertheless are essential for re-examination.
  
  
• RAC Report: Healthcare attorney Knicole Emanuel, a partner at the law firm of Practus, will file the Monitor Mondays RAC Report.
  
  
• SDoH Report: Ellen Fink-Samnick, a nationally recognized expert on the social determinants of health (SDoH), will report on the news that’s happening at the intersection of COVID-19 and the SDoH. Ellen will also conduct the Monitor Mondays Listeners Survey.
  
  
• Legislative Update: Former CMS official Matthew Albright, now chief legislative affairs officer for Zelis, will report on the status of healthcare legislation associated with the current COVID-19 pandemic.
  
  
• Risky Business: Healthcare attorney David Glaser, shareholder in the law offices of Fredrikson & Bryon, will join the broadcast with his trademark segment, reporting on legal implications during the pandemic.
  
  
• Monday Rounds: Ronald Hirsch, MD, vice president of R1 RCM, will be making his Monday Rounds with another installment of his popular segment.