Docs’ Payments Extended

WASHINGTON — Medicare physician payments will be frozen
until the end of this month under legislation signed by President
Obama late Tuesday, once again heading off a 21 percent
reimbursement cut. (The scheduled cut actually took effect March 1,
but CMS said it was holding physician claims for 10 days to give
Congress time to deal with the issue.) The Senate is now debating
an extension of the payment freeze through Sept. 30.

Last fall, the House passed a permanent pay fix for the docs
(H.R. 3961), but the bill’s $210 billion cost is not offset, and
the prospects for passage of such a measure in the Senate are
uncertain.

The American Medical Association and other physician groups have
been urging Congress to revise the current “sustainable growth
rate,” or SGR, payment formula — which has resulted in annual
pay decreases for physicians — in favor of a permanent fix.
In a statement issued before the pay freeze, the AMA warned the
Senate’s lack of action would create “a Medicare meltdown.”

Meantime, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission has
recommended that physicians and other Part B providers should get a
1 percent increase in 2011.