There continues to be disagreement with the House and Senate to “fix” the SGR cut. However, they have come to an agreement to postpone the cut! (but have yet to agree on the length of the postponement)
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released the following statement on December 19, 2011:
The negative update under current law for the 2012 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule is scheduled to take effect on Sun Jan 1, 2012, eight business days from today. Consequently, as on numerous occasions in the past, CMS will instruct its Medicare claims administration contractors to hold claims containing 2012 services paid under the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule for the first 10 business days of January 2012 (i.e., Sun Jan 1 through Tue Jan 17). The hold should have minimal impact on provider cash flow because, under current law, clean electronic claims are not paid sooner than 14 calendar days (29 days for paper claims) after the date of receipt.
Medicare Physician Fee Schedule claims for services rendered on or before Sat Dec 31 are unaffected by the 2012 claims hold and will be processed and paid under normal procedures and time frames.
CMS will notify you on or before Wed Jan 11, 2012, with more information about the status of Congressional action to avert the negative update and next steps regarding the claims hold.
