Senators introduce plan to extend doc fix through 2011

By Jessica Zigmond

Posted: December 7, 2010 - 8:45 pm ET

The following article is great news for physicians and the billing professionals like Comprehensive Revenue Solutions who facilitate their insurance billing.

The Senate majority and minority leaders and the chairmen of the Senate Finance Committee introduced legislation that would extend a fix to the Medicare physician payment formula through 2011.

Senator Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), and Senate Finance Committee Co-Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) introduced the Medicare and Medicaid Extenders Act of 2010, which would avert the scheduled 25% Medicare payment cut to physicians scheduled for Jan. 1, 2011. A provision in the bill would reverse that reduction and extend the current Medicare payment rates through Dec. 31, 2011. The estimated cost of the provision is $14.9 billion over 10 years.

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The Medical Group Management Association recently released a report at its annual conference indicating that more than 62% of medical practices will likely limit the number of new Medicare patients they will accept if the expected 30% plus Medicare cuts go into effect.    Almost 50% of practices said they would stop seeing Medicare patients altogether.   The responses were generated from more than 2,800 groups with about 63,000 physicians. Other cost-cutting changes will come from delaying the purchase of new equipment or facilities, while around 50% said they planned to reduce clinical staff.

According to MGMA 37% of medical practices delayed EHR purchases after congress delayed taking action on Medicare cuts. If these numbers bare out then medical practices in Portland, OR and other cities may want to consider researching more efficient web based technologies as the explore EMR and EHR. In addition outsourcing billing to professionals with state of the art billing technology can greatly reduce office overhead while increasing insurance and patient revenues.   

Data from article in Modern Physician.com by Maureen McKinney October 25, 2010