General Surgery Coding Alert

But the news isn't all good -- first, you faced a week of lower payments, and second, there's still no permanent fix.For one week in June you faced substantially lower Medicare payments, due to a 21.29 percent cut that hit your Part B claims. Fortunately, the House of Representatives reversed those cuts on the evening of June 24, with a vote that also gives you a 2.2 percent pay increase through November 30.Check Up on Claim ReprocessingOn June 18, 17 days' worth of claim holds expired, and with Congress slow to come to a legislative agreement, your practice paid the price after MACs began processing claims based on a conversion factor 21.29 percent lower than what you'd been collecting."CMS today directed contractors to lift the hold and begin processing June 1 and later MPFS claims under the law's negative update requirement," CMS said in a June 18 statement. "Held claims will [...]