Medicare Physician Payment Cuts Take Effect June 18
June 21, 2010
The 21.3 percent Medicare physician payment cut was set to go into effect June 1. After delaying claims processing twice, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has instructed its contractors to process claims for services provided to Medicare patients in June at the reduced rate starting, Friday, June 18. They may process these payments slower than normal as to prevent reprocessing after Congress passes a legislative "fix".
On Friday, June 18, the Senate passed H.R. 4213, the American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act. H.R. 4213 includes a 2.2 percent update to Medicare physician payments effective June 1 through November 30. The bill has been sent to the House for passage.
The Medicare physician payment formula has been flawed from its inception. The ACR is asking its members to contact their legislators and reiterate that a permanent repeal of the sustainable growth rate formula is absolutely essential to ensure Medicare patients' access to care.
