Last night the Senate was able to pass the Temporary Extension Act of 2010, which will delay the 21.2% Medicare cut to physicians. In addition to postponing Medicare physician payment cuts, the bill extended a variety of other expiring programs including unemployment insurance and premium subsidies for COBRA continuation coverage for those whose employment was involuntarily terminated.
This now means that Congress has a month to either approve another short-term fix to the Medicare SGR or to finally address this payment methodology so that physicians are not constantly faced with the threat of substantial Medicare reimbursement cuts. With President Obama pushing healthcare reform, the SGR formula fix may be tied into that bill or we may see something completely seperate emerge.
Stay tuned as the fun never seems to stop!!!!
