Updating the Geographic Practice Cost Index: The Malpractice GPCI. (Revised May 1994)

摘要

The Malpractice Geographic Practice Cost Index (MGPCI) is used to adjust physician payments made under the Medicare Fee Schedule (MFS) for differences in the cost of medical malpractice insurance. The report presents options for updating and revising the methodology used in the MGPCI. The changes considered related to improving the timeliness and validity of the data upon which the index is based and expanding the number of specialties whose premiums are captured by the index. Section II describes the new data collection effort in detail. Other methodological revisions and a series of alternative MGPCIs are presented in section III. Section IV explores the impact of each option on MGPCI values. Section V concludes with an assessment of the options. Section VI concludes the report by showing the effect of replacing the population weights with relative value unit (RVU) weights and structuring the index around the locality configuration that is in place.