IWCC Announces Increase to Fee Schedule Rates for 2012

The IWCC announced today that the 2012 medical fee schedule rates will increase 3.77%. The Illinois Workers’ Compensation Act requires the IWCC to update the medical fee schedule rates by the percentage change in the Consumer Price Index-U (CPI-U) during the previous year.

On September 1, 2011, the IWCC implemented a straight 30% decrease in the medical fee schedule rates, as required by HB 1698/Public Act 097-0018.

While the rates will increase by 3.77% for 2012, HB 1698/Public Act 097-0018 also mandates a complete restructuring of the medical fee schedule regions in Illinois. The full impact of this fee schedule region restructuring and rate recalculation is unknown until the Medical Fee Advisory Board makes a final decision on the recalculation methodology.

The new hospital & non-hospital regions were the main topic of discussion at the August 23 Medical Fee Advisory Board meeting, and the Board narrowed the possible rate recalculation methodologies down to two options.

The agenda for the Board meeting on September 20 at 9am includes the collapsing of the geo-zips. Glen Boyle and his team were going to have full samples of both recalculation scenarios for the Board to determine the new regions’ medical fee schedule rates for 2012.

We will provide a full update on the Board’s decisions regarding the new fee schedule regions after the meeting on Tuesday.