Medicare participation decision delayed due to delay in Medicare payment cuts 

As reported last week, Congress has delayed for six months a 10% physician fee cut. The bill would increase Medicare physician fees by 0.5% for six months and would extend several programs that provide higher Medicare reimbursement rates to rural health care providers and hospital laboratories. CMS officials have confirmed that, in light of this week's legislative intervention, the Medicare Participation decision period is being reopened for an additional 45 days. There was previously a deadline of Dec. 31, 2007 for physicians to decide if they would be "participating" or "non-participating" physicians for 2008; the new deadline to notify carriers of changes in participation status is Feb. 15, 2008. For now, CMS has indicated that participation decisions made by Feb. 15, 2008, will be binding for the entire year. If this should change, the AMCNO will send out additional information to our members.