Physician payment reform--putting the fee schedule together.

In 1989, Congress enacted sweeping legislation to require that Medicare pay physicians under a single fee schedule beginning in January 1992. Although the law was detailed in specifying the structure of the fee schedule, it left many difficult policy and operational issues to be resolved. This article discusses how the agency charged with implementing the new law will address those issues and describes some of the key steps that will be taken to put the fee schedule together.