Anesthesia Industry eAlerts
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21.2 Percent Medicare Payment Cut Postponed Again
March 3, 2010
On Tuesday night, legislation postponing the 21.2% SGR-driven cut in Medicare payments to physicians passed the Senate and was quickly signed into law by President Obama. Medicare will continue to pay at 2009 rates for another 30 days, as it did throughout January and February 2010. This extension will expire on March 31st and unless Congress adopts further extensions or actually fixes the SGR problem, the 21.2% cut will be back in place in April.
Medicare has advised Congressional offices that effective immediately, claims with dates of service after February 28th will be released for processing and payment. Late last week, CMS had announced that it would hold claims for 10 days so that Congress could pass corrective legislation, as it has now done.
Beyond this month, ASA, the American Medical Association and the specialty societies are still pushing vigorously for a permanent fix and not just month-to-month extensions of 2009 payment rates. As a “What’s New” item posted on the ASA website states:
Congressional negotiators continue to work to address the pending 21 percent payment cut and the flaws in the underlying Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula. Senate leadership is focused on H.R. 4213 the American Workers, State, and Business Relief Act of 2010. This legislation includes an additional “patch” for the 21 percent cut until Sept. 30, 2010. The legislation also includes provisions to extend the geographic practice cost index (GPCI) floor through Dec. 31, 2010.
ASA urges Congress to fully repeal the current SGR formula and implement a new Medicare physician payment update mechanism that accurately reflects the increasing annual costs of providing services to Medicare beneficiaries.
The latest-breaking news from Washington indicates that this afternoon President Obama endorsed the controversial legislative tactic known as reconciliation, saying, "Reform has already passed the House with a majority…. It has already passed the Senate with a supermajority of sixty votes. And now it deserves the same kind of up-or-down vote that was cast on welfare reform, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, COBRA health coverage for the unemployed, and both Bush tax cuts – all of which had to pass Congress with nothing more than a simple majority."
The reconciliation mechanism would involve the House of Representatives approving the health bill passed by the Senate in December. The House and the Senate would then use reconciliation to adopt a final set of changes, to satisfy demands of lawmakers in the House. Reconciliation rules prohibit filibusters, so the Senate Republicans would not be able to block the new health care reform legislation.
We will keep you posted; we welcome your messages updating us on information you have received from your own Congressional representatives, whose feet we urge you to keep holding to the fire.
With best wishes,
Tony Mira
President and CEO
