CMS1240932

Note to the Public regarding the County Data File for the 6^th GPCI Update

On November 29, 2010, CMS published the calendar year (CY) 2011 Physician Fee Schedule (PFS) final rule with comment period in the Federal Register. This rule finalizes the 6^th geographic practice cost index (GPCI) update as required by section 1848 (e)(1)(A) of the Social Security Act.

We make PFS payment geographic adjustments based on the established 89 PFS localities and, therefore, routinely provide the work, practice expense, and malpractice GPCIs to the public based on the locality configurations. However, at the request of several commenters, and as a continuation of CMS' commitment to transparency, we are posting a county-level GPCI file developed from the data adopted for the 6^th GPCI update which will allow interested parties to further examine and replicate our GPCI methodology.

The additional information includes county-level GPCI values, employee wage and rent index information for the practice expense GPCI, and the corresponding relative value unit (RVU) information utilized in GPCI locality calculations. In addition, we are providing technical guidance on the contents of the data file.

These additional data are for informational purposes only so that interested parties can have a better understanding of the data that underpin their locality GPCI values. We note that the provision of these data should not be interpreted to reflect any opinion by CMS or the Administration regarding the establishment of GPCIs at the county or any alternative locality configuration. We note further that it was necessary to impute some of these data to the counties since they were derived from data specific to larger geographic areas. The provision of these data should not be interpreted to reflect any views about the adequacy or administrative feasibility of using such data to establish GPCIs at the county or alternative locality level.