Flu resources and payment allowances: Medicare releases updates for the 2019-2020 season

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently released its 2019-2020 influenza resources for health care professionals. Medicare pays physicians and other health care professionals for flu vaccines and their administration without any out-of-pocket costs to the Medicare patient (i.e., no deductible or copayment/coinsurance applies).

Medicare influenza vaccine payment allowances for the 2019-2020 flu season are also available. These payment allowances are effective for dates of service from August 1, 2019, through July 31, 2020. If you submitted claims for the current flu season that were paid incorrectly (e.g., using influenza vaccine payment allowances for the prior season), your Medicare administrative contractor will reprocess those claims. This reprocessing should occur by November 1, 2019. If the Food and Drug Administration approves any new influenza vaccine, CMS will post the payment limits and effective dates for those vaccines online.

— Kent Moore, Senior Strategist for Physician Payment at the American Academy of Family Physicians