Senate Passes Six-Month SGR Fix

The U.S. Senate passed an amended version of H.R. 3962, now called the “Preservation of Access to Care for Medicare Beneficiaries and Pension Relief Act of 2010,” by unanimous consent late last week. This legislation provides a 2.2 percent Medicare physician payment update for six months, from June 1 through Nov. 30, in lieu of the 21 percent cut scheduled for 2010.

Unfortunately, the U.S. House of Representatives is not scheduled to hold any floor votes until the evening of June 22. As a result, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is instructing its carriers to lift the hold on processing claims for services provided on or after June 1, and to begin processing them under the law’s negative update requirement. In other words, claims will begin to be paid at the 21 percent lower rate on a first-in/first-out flow basis. Once H.R. 3962 is passed by the House and signed by President Obama, CMS will retroactively adjust any June claims that have been paid. The AMCNO has repeatedly written to Northern Ohio Congressional leaders asking for a permanent fix to this problem – and we will continue to do so. The AMCNO will alert our members if and when H.R. 3962 is passed by the House and signed by President Obama.