2010 Medicare physician fee schedule: Here we go again!

I feel like a broken record. 

On April 1 (see "2010 Medicare physician fee schedule:  Stop me if you've heard this one before"), I shared with you how the Senate had again failed to pass legislation avoiding a 21 percent cut in the Medicare payment rate to physicians. As a result, the cut was technically effective with dates of service on or after April 1, 2010, but the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) again instructed its contractors to hold claims for services paid under the fee schedule for the first 10 business days of April to give Congress time to rescind the cut. 

It actually took 15 days. On April 15, Congress passed and the President signed legislation that extended the 2009 Medicare physicians payment rate until May 31, 2010. 

Now May 31 has come and gone, and I know that you will be shocked to learn that Congress again failed to act. Actually, to be fair to the House of Representatives, it was the Senate that again failed to act. The House passed a bill on May 28 that would have increased the payment rate by 2.2 percent for the rest of 2010 plus an additional 1 percent in 2011. The Senate, however, determined that there was insufficient time to consider the bill before their Memorial Day recess and left Washington without action on the bill.

Consequently, the 21 percent cut is technically in effect again for dates of service on or after June 1. And once again, CMS has instructed its Medicare contractors to hold claims for services paid under the fee schedule for the first 10 business days of the month to give Congress time to rescind the cut. 

Congress returns from its recess on June 7. What will happen then is anyone's guess. In the meantime, it's the same tune and a different verse, and it's beginning to sound like the blues to most physicians.