President Signs Stopgap Bill to Delay Medicare Physician Payment Cut

President Obama signed into law legislation that provides a stopgap, 31-day delay of the 21.2 percent Medicare physician pay cut that was scheduled to take effect on March 1. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services subsequently advised providers that claims with dates of service March 1 and later, which were being held by Medicare contractors, will be released for processing and payment.

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Senate May Delaying 21.2% Physician Payment Cut

Senators are discussing delaying the pending 21.2 percent cut to Medicare physician payments for an additional 15 or 30 days. The extension of the current freeze would likely be included in an “extenders” bill, which would address COBRA, unemployment insurance, the Patriot Act, and highway funding provisions which are also scheduled to expire on Feb. 28. Consideration of this legislation may take place as early as today.



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CMS Announces Vetted PQRI Registries List for 2010

CMS recently announced that a group of 31 PQRI  registries have become “qualified” to submit quality data to CMS on behalf of their eligible professionals for 2010 PQRI reporting. CMS indicated taht each registry has gone through a thorough vetting process including checking their capability to provide the required PQRI data elements, reviewing a measure flow (this checks to see whether the registry calculates the measure’s reporting and performance rates correctly), and transmitting the required information in the requested file format (XML). While the listed registries successfully completed the vetting process, CMS does not guarantee that any or all of the listed registries will be successful in providing the required information on behalf of their eligible professionals for the possible payment incentive. This list, however, represents those registries who successfully submitted data for 2008 PQRI in early 2009 on behalf of their eligible professional clients. Additional 2009 “qualified” registries (who have completed the vetting process) will be submitting 2009 PQRI data in early 2010 and will be added to this list if their data submission is successful (list update anticipated Spring 2010). Finally,  other registries will be allowed to become “qualified” for 2010 PQRI participation. CMS expects to complete the vetting process and post the names of the new registries by the summer of 2010. Eligible professionals who wish to participate in 2010 PQRI using one of the registry-based options may contact the PQRI registries directly for additional details on participation options.

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