§ 414.615 Transition to the ambulance fee schedule.

The fee schedule for ambulance services will be phased in over 5 years beginning April 1, 2002. Subject to the first sentence in § 414.610(a), payment for services furnished during the transition period is made based on a combination of the fee schedule payment for ambulance services and the amount the program would have paid absent the fee schedule for ambulance services, as follows:

(a) 2002 Payment. For services furnished in 2002, the payment for the service component, the mileage component and, if applicable, the supply component is based on 80 percent of the reasonable charge for independent suppliers or on 80 percent of reasonable cost for providers, plus 20 percent of the ambulance fee schedule amount for the service and mileage components. The reasonable charge or reasonable cost portion of payment in CY 2002 is equal to the supplier's reasonable charge allowance or provider's reasonable cost allowance for CY 2001, multiplied by the statutory inflation factor for ambulance services.