News Brief:
Congress Passes 1-Year Medicare Pay Fix
Published on Mon Nov 22, 2010
New legislation helps you avoid the scheduled 25 percent drop in Medicare pay for 2011. The roller coaster ride of conversion factor changes for 2011 has ended, thanks to a Senate Finance Committee bill that will freeze Medicare pay at current levels for another 12 months. The House of Representatives passed the Medicare and Medicaid Extenders Act of 2010 on Dec. 9 and the Senate voted on it the day before. The bill will eliminate the 25 percent cut that medical practices were going to face effective January 1. President Obama made it official on December 15, 2010, when he signed the year-long delay into law. Physicians cheered the news that they won't have to wait for the new Congress and Senate members to take their seats before determining whether a payment fix would take place. "The AMA welcomes bipartisan House passage of legislation to stop the Medicare physician payment [...]