Home Health & Hospice Week

Keep a wary eye on Congress. CMS will publish in the Nov. 29 Federal Register a 2011 physician fee schedule that includes a 30 percent pay cut, which Congress will surely overturn -- perhaps with funding from your Medicare payments.

In a Nov. 4 Cabinet meeting, President Obama "stressed that preventing these potentially disastrous cuts must be one of our top priorities," HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said in remarks in front of the Association of American Medical Colleges Annual Meeting Nov. 8.

Effective Dec. 1, last year's "doc fix" package expires and physicians' Medicare pay is set to drop by more than 23 percent. And 2011 payments are due to drop even further starting Jan. 1.

"While Congress has provided temporary relief from these reductions every year since 2003, a long-term solution is critical," the fee schedule notes. "We are committed to permanently reforming the Medicare payment formula."

Whether the fix will come before or after the new year is uncertain. "We have no idea what will happen in Congress in January regarding the conversion factor," says physician Michael A. Ferragamo, clinical assistant professor of urology at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Some newly elected Senators and House members will be in place in 2011, and it's unclear whether the current Congress will make changes affecting 2011 pay before January, or whether they'll leave the issues for the new Congress to handle, he says.

HHS is urging Congress to pass a 13-month fix for doc rates while lawmakers work on a longterm solution, Sebelius said.