Physician Pay Wars' Winners and Losers

However, he says that although many family doctors will see pay increases as a result of this CMS rule, he doesn't think they'll rush to make changes in hiring in their practices at least for another couple of months, until they see how the policy impacts their offices.

Other physician specialty groups likely to see pay increases, are:

• Allergy/immunologists, 3%
• Anesthesiologists, 1%
• Colon and rectal surgeons, 2%
• Critical care specialists, 1%
• Endocrinologists, 1%
• General practice doctors, 1%
• Hand surgeons, 1%
• Hematology/oncologists, 2%
• Infectious disease specialists, 1%
• Interventional pain management specialists, 1%
• Otolaryngologists, 2%
• Psychiatrists, 2%
• Pulmonary disease specialists, 1%

Payment Losers
Among those specialists likely to receive pay cuts are

• cardiac surgeons, -1%;
• cardiologists, -2%
• nuclear medicine specialists, -3%
• ophthalmologists, -3%
• pathologists, -6%
• physical medicine specialists, -4%
• thoracic surgeons, -1%
• urologists, -1%
• vascular surgeons, -2%

The final rule includes additional important provisions that tie physician reimbursement with quality performance measures, and some new information on quality reporting for doctors to be posted on Medicare's Physician Compare site starting Jan. 1.

The rule was issued with a comment period that extends until Dec. 31, 2012.