Final Policy, Payment, and Quality Provisions Changes to the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule for Calendar Year 2021

CY 2021 PFS Ratesetting and Conversion Factor

CMS is finalizing a series of standard technical proposals involving practice expense, including the implementation of the third year of the market-based supply and equipment pricing update, and standard rate-setting refinements to update premium data involving malpractice expense and geographic practice cost indices (GPCIs).

With the budget neutrality adjustment, as required by law, to account for changes in RVUs including significant increases for E/M visit codes, the final CY 2021 PFS conversion factor is $32.41, a decrease of $3.68 from the CY 2020 PFS conversion factor of $36.09. The PFS conversion factor reflects the statutory update of 0.00 percent and the adjustment necessary to account for changes in relative value units and expenditures that would result from finalized policies.