Congress has adjourned for a two-week spring recess without taking action to stop the 21.3% cut to Medicare physician payments.  This means that this cut will take effect this Thursday, April 1, 2010.

The AMA has informed the NCMS that the Senate plans to hold a cloture vote after the recess, which, if supported by 60 Senators, will allow a vote to delay this cut.  That vote could occur as early as April 12, 2010.

Consequently, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has instructed its contractors to hold claims containing services paid under the MPFS (including anesthesia services) for the first 10 business days of April.  This hold will only affect claims with dates of service April 1, 2010, and forward.  CMS believes the hold should have minimum impact on provider cash flow because, under the current law, clean electronic claims are not paid any sooner than 14 calendar days (29 for paper claims) after the date of receipt. 

The NCMS has remained actively engaged with our Congressional delegation to support a permanent fix to the flawed Medicare physician payment formula and will continue to push for this change until action is taken.