| Medicare |
The Congress has failed to adopt another extension of the freeze of the Medicare physician fee schedule Conversion Factor. This means that effective for services provided on or after June 1, there will be a 21.3% cut in the Medicare fee schedule payments.
The Congress will not be in session next week due to the Memorial Day Recess, meaning that the earliest it could consider legislation reinstating the freeze (or enacting a replacement to the SGR) would be June 7th.
Because Medicare claims are not paid any sooner than 14 days after receipt, technically Congress has until June 13th to adopt legislation avoiding the 21.3% cut. CMS is using various communication tools to make Physicians aware of this situation.
The HBMA Government Relations Committee continues to believe that Congress will ultimately enact legislation - as it has in the past - to prevent the 21.3% cut but physicians and billing companies should be prepared for the possibility that the legislation won't be enacted by June 13th.
