Looming Medicare Pay Cuts May Be Unavoidable, Says AAFP

A leading primary care physicians association is warning its members that Congress, bogged down by partisan squabbling, may not be able to delay the 21.2% cuts to Medicare reimbursements that go into effect Thursday.

"The physician payment extension has been caught up in much larger issues of unemployment insurance and the federal deficit," Kevin Burke, lead lobbyist for the American Academy of Family Physicians, said in a media release. "But while Congress is mired in its partisan battles, family physicians are faced with drastically reduced payments now and administrative nightmares in the near future."

The Senate today passed a procedural hurdle on a bill that would provide a Medicare payment extension through April 30, reversing the 21.2% reduction that took effect on April 1 under the sustainable growth rate formula.

Now, Senators will begin consideration of the bill reversing the payment reduction. If Senators don't agree to shorten the allocated debate time, however, they may not vote on final passage of the bill until after Thursday's deadline, Burke said.

The physician pay cut has been an ongoing drama on Capitol Hill. The House passed the Medicare extension bill on March 17. However, the Senate failed to act on it before a two-week spring break recess on March 26. The reimbursement cut went into effect on April 1, but CMS ordered contractors to hold payments delivered after April 1 for 10 business days, or April 14, anticipating that Congress would act on the cuts before they took effect.

Burke says the bill providing the payment patch through April 30 is expected to pass, perhaps by Friday, after which Congress will debate a bill to extend the current payment rate until Oct. 1. Both the House and the Senate have passed separate extension bills, but are negotiating how to pay for it.

If Congress doesn't approve the Medicare patch until after the April 15 deadline, physicians would see one or two days of claims processed at the reduced rate. AAFP has asked CMS if it will pay the difference between the reduced claims rate and the restored rate automatically or if physicians will have to resubmit their claims. AAFP also asked for guidance on how physicians should handle copayments they may have collected since April 1.

AAFP has additionally asked CMS if the deadline for physician nonparticipation in Medicare for 2010 has passed, AAFP said.