Medicare Cuts Delayed Until June 1

Last night, the President signed H.R. 4851, the Continuing Extension Act of 2010, into law, reinstating Medicare physician payments to where they were on March 31 and again postponing the 21.3 percent cut that was supposed to take effect in 2010. This most recent extension of 2009 payment rates will continue through the end of May, and will be applied retroactively to all physician services provided to Medicare patients in April.

Yesterday, the hold on processing April claims that the CMS had placed to avoid implementing the payment cut technically expired. However, with Congressional action so imminent, do not believe many claims were actually processed at the lower payment rates. However, CMS indicated that any claims paid that reflected the 21.3 percent cut will be reprocessed automatically without any action required from physicians.