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CMS News
On March 2,
2010, President Obama signed into law the
"Temporary Extension Act of 2010." Among
other things, this law extends through March 31,
2010, the zero percent update to the Medicare
Physician Fee Schedule that was in effect for
claims with dates of service January 1, 2010,
through February 28, 2010. Consequently,
effective immediately, claims with dates of
service March 1 and later which were being held by
Medicare contractors will be released for
processing and payment. Please keep in mind
that the statutory payment floors still apply and,
therefore, clean electronic claims cannot be paid
before 14 calendar days after the date they are
received by Medicare contractors (29 calendar days
for clean paper claims). In
addition, the new law extends through March 31,
2010, the exception process for therapy claims
reaching the annual cap, retroactive to January 1,
2010. Affected providers may submit claims
for exceptions to the annual therapy caps, with
dates of service January 1 through March 31, 2010,
using the KX modifier, following the pre-January
1, 2010, requirements for therapy cap
exceptions.
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Late on March 2, the Senate approved the
House-passed bill that extends unemployment
benefits, COBRA, the SGR and other payment and
benefit provisions. The bill funds Medicare
payments to physicians at the current rate until
March 31. The President immediately signed
the bill.
Meanwhile, the Senate is
working on another bill that would extend these
same benefits for several more months. In
the case of the SGR, payments would be extended to
October 1 of this year. This bill will
likely pass the Senate later this week or early
next and would likely be approved quickly in the
House.
Most Senators who voted
for the legislation cited the difficulties created
for the unemployed, but they also heard from a
large number of physicians and that made a
significant difference in their sense of
urgency.
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