On December 1, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) officially released its annual Physician Fee Schedule (PFS) final rule for 2021. The rule updates payment policies and quality programs under Medicare’s Physician Fee Schedule (PFS) starting January 1, 2021. At 2,165-pages in length, the rule includes a long list of other important policy updates impacting everything from telehealth services to accountable care organizations to regulatory waivers tied to the COVID-19 national emergency. Due to the pandemic, this year CMS released the rule a month later than its usual late October or early November timeframe. Despite this delayed release, the rule will still go into effect on January 1, 2021, leaving less than a month for physicians to digest and prepare for the changes. In the midst of the pandemic, the holiday season, and usual end-of-year business activities, that creates a challenging compliance timeline for physician groups and healthcare organizations. With that in mind, here are my key takeaways from the rule (in less than 2,100 pages): Beyond these highlights, there are many other critical policy changes included in the final rule that will impact physician groups in 2021 and beyond. NextGen Healthcare clients interested to learn more about the final rule and how it might impact your practice can sign up for our next Health Reform Simplified webinar on December 17 HERE.