The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a final rule Friday, February 22nd that implements five key consumer protections from the Affordable Care Act, and makes “the health insurance market work better for individuals, families, and small businesses.”
“Because of the Affordable Care Act, being denied affordable health coverage due to medical conditions will be a thing of the past for every American,” said HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. “Being sick will no longer keep you, your family, or your employees from being able to get affordable health coverage.“
I don’t know about you but I am emotionally exhausted thinking about and worrying about the on-again off-again cuts in Medicare fees for physicians.
Here’s the scoop: late Thursday evening, June 24, 2010, the House of Representatives passed the ” Preservation of Access to Care for Medicare Beneficiaries and Pension Relief Act of 2010 (H.R. 3962)” which includes a delay in the 21+% fee cut. Because the same legislation was already passed by the Senate, it now goes to the President for his signature and it becomes law. It is anticipated that this will happen quickly and CMS will have the MACs start processing new claims with dates of service of June 1, 2010 and later at the 2009 fee schedule plus a 2.2% increase. The MACs will also have to reprocess the claims already paid for dates of service June 1, 2010 and later that were processed with 2010 fee schedule and that big fat cut.
Q: What should we be doing for the next 5 months and 6 days?
Image by Getty Images via @daylife
A: Have someone in your practice take a video of your providers introducing themselves, telling how many Medicare patients they have and how they can’t afford to see Medicare patients unless the SGR formula is replaced with something that works. The video doesn’t have to be slick – just real. Send it to your senators and representatives. Send it your local TV news. Post it on YouTube. Imagine hundreds of thousands of providers introducing themselves and talking about their patients. It would be powerful.
UPDATE: On June 24, 2010 the House and Senate passed legislation to further delay the Medicare cuts until November 30, 2010. More here.
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Excerpt From Today’s CMS Announcement (with my bolding):
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is hopeful that Congressional action will be taken within the next several days to avert the negative update.
Given the possibility of Congressional action in the very near future, CMS is now directing its contractors to continue holding June 1 and later claims through Thursday, June 17, lifting the hold on Friday, June 18.
This action will facilitate accurate claims processing at the outset and minimize the need for claims reprocessing if Congressional action changes the negative update. It also should minimize the provider and beneficiary burdens and costs associated with reprocessing claims.
We understand that the delayed processing of Medicare claims may present cash flow problems for some Medicare providers. However, we expect that the delay, if any, beyond the normal processing period will be only a few days. Be on the alert for more information regarding the 2010 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Update.
“At the request of several Members of Congress, the Federal Trade Commission is further delaying enforcement of the “Red Flags” Rule through December 31, 2010, while Congress considers legislation that would affect the scope of entities covered by the Rule. Today’s announcement and the release of an Enforcement Policy Statement do not affect other federal agencies’ enforcement of the original November 1, 2008 deadline for institutions subject to their oversight to be in compliance.”
UPDATE: On June 24, 2010 the House and Senate passed legislation to further delay the Medicare cuts until November 30, 2010. More here.
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Congress has yet to pass a bill delaying the June 1, 2010 21.2% reduction in physician reimbursement, but most believe it will happen and be effective retroactively.
CMS has said it is anticipating a further delay in Medicare fee schedule cuts, so they have “instructed contractors to hold claims containing services paid under the MPFS for the first 10 business days of June.”
