Note to the Public regarding the County Data File for the Revised 6th GPCI Update
On July 1st, 2011, CMS issued the calendar year (CY) 2012 Physician Fee Schedule (PFS) proposed rule. This proposed rule addresses our 6th update to the Medicare Geographic Practice Cost Indices (GPCI) and incorporates our analyses of the practice expense (PE) GPCI and cost share weights in accordance with section 1848 (e)(1)(H)(iv) of the Act.
We adjust PFS payments geographically to reflect relative differences among costs in the 89 established PFS localities. We have provided the "work," "practice expense," and "malpractice" GPCIs to the public based on the locality configurations. As part of CMS' ongoing commitment to transparency, we are posting the county-level GPCI file that we used to develop the proposed CY 2012 GPCIs. This file will allow interested parties to further examine and replicate our GPCI methodology.
This file 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 further note 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.
This file is entitled CY 2012 Proposed Rule GPCI County Data File and can be found in the "Downloads" section below.
Downloads
- CY 2010 Utilization Data Crosswalk to CY2011
- CY 2012 PFS Proposed Rule Supplemental GPCI Information
- CY 2012 PFS Proposed Rule Indirect Practice Cost Indices
- CY 2012 PFS Proposed Rule Draft Report Proposed Revisions to the Sixth Update of the GPCI
- CY 2012 PFS Proposed Rule GPCI County Data File
- CY 2012 PFS Addenda
- CY 2012 PFS Proposed Rule PE/HR
- CY 2012 PFS Proposed Rule Direct PE Inputs (DPEI)
- CY 2012 PFS Proposed Rule Physician Time