The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has released a proposed rule that would modify the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy Rule by allowing health care providers to make certain disclosures to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS). The NICS aims to keep guns from being sold to those … Continue Reading
Medicare pay cut averted; Congress OKs two-month patch Physicians got a brief reprieve from a 27 percent Medicare pay cut Friday when the U.S. House of Representatives reached agreement with the Senate on a two-month extension of important policies that expire on Jan. 1. The U.S. Senate last week voted to extend current Medicare … Continue Reading
CMS ANNOUNCES POLICY, PAYMENT RATE CHANGES FOR THE PHYSICIAN FEE SCHEDULE IN 2012 The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) today issued a final rule with comment period that updates payment policies and rates for physicians and nonphysician practitioners (NPPs) for services paid under the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) in calendar year (CY) … Continue Reading
Congress approves Medicare physician payment fix The House of Representatives passed legislation this morning that averts a 24.9 percent Medicare payment cut to physicians that was scheduled to take effect on Jan. 1. The measure passed the Senate Wednesday evening by unanimous consent. To pay for the legislation, the bill changes policy regarding overpayments … Continue Reading
MGMA reported today: Senate passes a 1-year Medicare physician payment patch; House to act next The Senate passed today by unanimous consent legislation preventing a 24.9 percent cut in Medicare physician payments. The Medicare and Medicaid Extenders Act of 2010 (H.R. 4944) extends the current Medicare payment rates through Dec. 31, 2011. This one-year halt of … Continue Reading
Pres. Obama signed the Physician Payment and Therapy relief Act of 2010. This act extends the temporary 2.2 % medicare Physician Fee Schedule increase, which replaced the projected 23% SGR decrease for 2010, but only for one more month.… Continue Reading
Senate Acts to Avert Medicare Physician Fee Cut By Nora Colangelo and Jacqueline Finnegan* On November 18, 2010, the Senate approved a bill that would postpone the scheduled 23% Medicare physician payment cut scheduled to take effect on December 1, 2010, for one month. If approved by the House of Representatives and signed into law … Continue Reading
CMS will process claims tomorrow, June 18, with 21 percent cut As the clock continues to tick toward the June 18 final deadline for implementation of the 21.3 percent cut in Medicare physician payments produced by the sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula, U.S. Senate debate continued June 17 over H.R. 4213, the American Jobs and … Continue Reading
The 2009 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule made some changes regarding physician enrollment. The most significant change is the elimination of retroactive billing. Prior to the 2009 changes, Medicare permitted retroactive billing for up to 27 months following the effective date of a physician’s Medicare enrollment, to allow physicians to bill for services that they provided while the … Continue Reading
