Medicare Compliance & Reimbursement

Plus: You'll face a 10-day payment delay from MACs as they update their claims systems to reflect changes. Good news: Despite Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' (CMS) plans to downgrade your 2010 conversion factor by 21.29 percent, the government stepped in at the last minute and offered you a quick boost -- at least temporarily. Facing grim cuts in Medicare pay, Congress voted to delay a decrease to the conversion factor until March 1, 2010. Therefore, you'll see a conversion factor of $36.0846 for dates of service between Jan. 1, 2010 and Feb. 28, 2010. This temporary fix will help Medicare payments stay stable while a more permanent fix is still up in the air, as Congress hasn't decided whether to permanently change the sustainable growth rate formula. "Ensuring continued access to physician care for America's seniors is critically important, which is why Congress must fix the broken Medicare physician payment [...]