President Signs Six Month SGR Fix
The President has signed the Preservation of Access to Care for Medicare Beneficiaries and Pension Relief Act into law, which provides a 2.2 percent update for Medicare physician payment rates retroactive from June 1 through Nov. 30, 2010.
CMS has instructed its carriers to process claims at the 2.2 percent rate, and will reprocess any claims at the negative 21.3 percent rate as soon as possible to reflect the new rate. CMS has indicated that providers do not need to resubmit claims that were already submitted to their contractors. AGA will continue to provide any new information on this issue from CMS.
The AGA is pleased that Congress was able to stop the bleeding, albeit temporarily, since the 21.3 percent had already gone into effect, but we continue to advocate for a long term solution to the flawed SGR formula. Dr. John Allen met with senators and representatives during the Alliance of Specialty Medicine fly-in to urge them to enact meaningful payment reform for physicians to provide stability for providers and patients. This issue continues to be the number one priority for organized medicine and we will continue to call on Congress to stop using physicians and patients as a political football and fix this problem one and for all.
Look for more updates on this critical issue via the AGA Washington Insider.
Updated: June 25, 2010
