Senate failure to pass 30-day extension causes 21.3 percent cut to Medicare physician payments on April 1

Most practices are ignoring the fact that ICD-10 is coming. You can go to www.ama-assn.org/amednews and see the January 11, 2010 article; ICD-10 deadline causing worry, even 3 years away. MGMA estimates that the average costs for a three physician practice to switch to ICD-10 will be $84,000.

On Wednesday, March 10, the U.S.

Late last night, the president signed

On Thursday afternoon, the House of Representatives passed the legislation necessary to prevent the 21% SGR cut from taking place on Monday.  The House bill wo

If you are a physician or practice administrator, then at the top or the bottom of that stack on you desk or those emails in your inbox there is an item on the federal government's incentives to help implement electronic health records, right?

Do you know what "meaningful use" is and what it will look like in your practice? Even more importantly, do you know what it will cost, how much you can expect from Medicare or Medicaid in incentives? If you answered "No" to any of those questions, then read on.

Barring last-minute action by Congress, the 21.2 percent cut to Medicare physician payments will take effect next Monday, March 1. Despite previous indications that the Senate was considering an amendment to an anticipated job-creation bill to avert the cut, no clear legislative pathway for relief has yet been defined.

Getting physicians paid for their work has become increasingly difficult. It has become as difficult to get paid correctly by the private insurance companies as by the Government.

As I am sure you are all aware, barring last-minute action by Congress, the 21.2 percent cut to Medicare physician payments will take effect next Monday, March 1.  Despite previous indications that the Senate was considering an amendment to an anticipated job-creation bill to avert the cut, no clear legislative pathway for relief has yet been defined.

In an attempt to reenergize broad healthcare reform, which has been stalled in recent weeks, President Obama has scheduled a nationally televised bipartisan healthcare summit for February 25th.  Several legislative strategies have been discussed to reconcile the different versions of the bills passed by the House and Senate.  At this point, there is no clear pathway that has been agreed to by the Democratic leadership.

The president mapped out his clearest plan yet to move forward with comprehensive health care legislation, saying that he wanted to meet with Democrats, Republicans, and independent experts, lay out the facts for the American people and then, he said, "I think that we have got to move forward on a vote."  This was his message to supporters at a fundraiser last night.