• Avoiding Medicare cliff still has initial consequences for payment

    With the Medicare payment cliff averted for now, Medicare and its contractors are beginning to implement payments for 2013 services. Here is what you can expect, based on information provided by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

    First, CMS is revising the 2013 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) to reflect the new law's requirements as well as technical corrections identified since publication of the final rule on the 2013 MPFS in November 2012. Officially, the 2013 conversion factor is $34.0230.

    Second, to allow sufficient time to develop, test, and implement the revised MPFS, Medicare contractors were able to hold MPFS claims with January 2013 dates of service for up to 10 business days (i.e., through Jan. 15). CMS expected those claims to be released into processing no later than Jan. 16. The claim hold should have minimal impact on your cash flow, however, because, under current law, clean electronic claims are not paid sooner than 14 calendar days (29 for paper claims) after the date of receipt anyway. Claims with dates of service prior to Jan. 1, 2013, are unaffected.

    Medicare contractors will be posting the correct MPFS payment rates on their websites no later than Jan. 23. If you have downloaded or will be downloading the fee schedule from your local Medicare contractor's web site, double-check to ensure that it reflects the correct rates, based on the recent change in the law.

    Finally, the 2013 Annual Participation Enrollment Program allowed eligible physicians, practitioners, and suppliers an opportunity to change their Medicare participation status by Dec. 31, 2012. Given the new legislation, CMS is extending the 2013 annual participation enrollment period through Feb. 15, 2013. Therefore, you have until Feb. 15, 2013, to postmark any participation changes (both elections and withdrawals) that you want to make. The effective date for any participation status changes during the extension remains Jan. 1, 2013, and will be binding for the rest of the year.

    – Kent Moore, Senior Strategist for Physician Payment for the American Academy of Family Physicians

    Posted on Jan 17, 2013 by David Twiddy


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