Health Law

CMS Delays Physician Payments to Allow Medicare Fee Fix

By Todd Rodriguez

In an effort to give Congress a few more days to pass legislation postponing the 2010 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule payment cuts, CMS has once again instructed its contractors to hold physician claims for the first 10 days of March for claims with dates of service March 1, 2010 and later.  The payment cuts were to take effect on March 1, 2010 but if Congress can pass at least a temporary fix in the next few days, the 10 day processing delay will allow physician payments to resume at 2009 rates.  Of course, the delay also means physicians will feel a cash flow pinch sometime in the next few months as Medicare payments come in later than expected.

Full post as published by Physician Law on March 02, 2010 (boomark / email).