General Surgery Coding Alert

Question: Are our surgeons’ Medicare payments still subject to the 2 percent sequestration cuts, and if so, when does this expire?

Codify Subscriber

Answer: The sequestration cuts were instituted in 2013 and are indeed still in place. In fact, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently issued an “MLN Connects Provider e-News” bulletin, which noted that the 2 percent payment reduction will stay in place for the foreseeable future.

“The claims payment adjustment will continue to be applied to all claims after determining coinsurance, any applicable deductible, and any applicable Medicare Secondary Payment adjustments,” CMS said in the notification. “Though beneficiary payments for deductibles and coinsurance are not subject to the 2 percent payment reduction, Medicare’s payment to beneficiaries for unassigned claims is subject to the 2 percent reduction.”

To read more from the MLN Matters update, visit www.cms.gov/Outreach-and-Education/Outreach/FFSProvPartProg/Provider-Partnership-Email-Archive-Items/2016-03-03-Enews.html#_Toc444672557.