Congress passes fee fix, avoids 27% physician pay cut
Physicians are safe from the impending 27.4% cut to their Medicare payments set to hit March 1 thanks to Congress passing a temporary ‘doc fix’ Friday through the end of 2012.
The vote to extend the payroll tax holiday bill and keep the current $34.0376 conversion rate through Dec. 31 comes on the heels of intense debate among Congress members as to whether preventing the pay cut was fiscally sound. The $150 billion bill failed to include deeper cuts requested by GOP Congress members but remained largely budget neutral.
Congress originally approved a two-month fix that was set to expire Feb. 29. Once signed into law, the new fee fix will be good through Dec. 31.
Health Insurance Claims Processing Errors on the Rise
The rate of inaccurate claims payments increased last year among commercial health insurers, according to the American Medical Association’s annual National Health Insurer Report Card.
Commercial health insurers had an average claims-processing error rate of 19.3 percent, a 2 percent increase from 2010, according to the AMA findings, which are based on a random sampling of 2.4 million electronic claims in February and March.
The AMA estimates the increase in overall inaccuracy represents an extra 3.6 million in erroneous claims payments compared to last year and adds $1.5 billion in unnecessary administrative costs. Eliminating health insurer claim payment errors would save $17 billion annually, the AMA estimated.
Physician billing and practice management companies have had to implement new tools and techniques to insure that their clients done feel the effects of this insurance industry trend.
