Another Medicare Payment Deadline Blown: Prepare for AMA Ads
Side Note: As Medicare reimbursement to physicians reaches the date of a scheduled 21% cut, Congress has responded only by pushing the date back and letting the broken system continue. The Cunningham Group supports the efforts of the AMA and other medical organizations to encourage meaningful action on the Medicare payment issue.
by Katherine Hobson
Wall Street Journal Blog
“Congress has already missed the deadline for new legislation to block cuts of 21% in Medicare payments to doctors. The pay reduction officially took effect June 1, but the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services — the federal agency that oversees the giant health systems — put a hold on processing physician payments for 10 business days, effectively pushing off the bite on payments for physicians’ services until June 15.”
If that paragraph sounds familiar, it’s because only the dates have changed — otherwise it’s exactly the same thing we wrote back in April, when we last faced this situation. The American Medical Association, for one, is increasingly peeved with the blown deadlines and on Thursday will lay out the details of a “multi-million dollar” ad campaign to get people to call their senators and have them deal with the issue. (Before leaving for the Memorial Day recess, the House passed a bill that would delay the cuts until the end of next year.)
