Welcome To Kaitlynn's Place

Kaitlynn was born September 29th, 2004. We have seen neurology specialists from St. Louis to New Orleans since she was born. Unfortunately, we still do not have a definitive diagnosis for Kaitlynn. The best guess her doctors have to offer is mitochondrial disease.

Physicians May Face Cash Flow Problems As Congress Debates "Doc Fix "

9:51 PM Posted In , , , Edit This 1 Comment »
Unless Congress can get their rear ends out of neutral, medical practices that take Medicare will  be forced to file claims at rates reduced by 21.3%.  After several postponements, the 19 month Medicare “doc fix” action is finally being taken up in the Senate, but Senate may be too little too late.

The Medicare payment cuts were scheduled to start June 1st, but the agency that oversees Medicare (CMS) asked contractors to delay processing patient claims for 10 business days in an effort to give Congress time to act. However, June 10th is here and the cuts have still not been addressed by Congress. Senator Charles Schumer of New York spoke about the issue in a press conference this week. He says the Senate is expected to have the 60 votes early next week. 

Even if the Senate passes the legislation next week and avoids a Republican filibuster, it still must pass the House and be signed by President Obama. So we are looking at a minimum of several weeks of Medicare rates being reduced by 21.3%.

This means a potential serious cash-flow shortage for physicians. Physicians can opt to not submit the claims until they can get an unreduced rate -or- immediately submit the claim at the reduced rate and hope for a better retroactive rate once the doc fix is passed; either way, the Medicare health care provider is going to be cash strapped with the cut. Medicare makes up about 30% of the average doctor revenue. We may see medium to small practices making serious cuts to make up for their income loss.

Read more:

http://thehill.com/news-by-subject/healthcare/102021-delay-in-medicare-payment-fix-could-mess-up-doctors-cash-flow?page=2#comments


http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/723317

1 comments:

Velvet Over Steel said...

This is such a horrible situation and in our area at least, it really effects the doctors who truely care about their patients and want to help those regardless of their insurance coverage, or lack there of. This bad for independant doctors, small town clinics and patients who don't have a lot of choices in regards to doctors and clinics. I'm praying that they get this situation resolved very quickly! ~ Coreen