The U.S. Senate adjourned on Friday for a two-week recess without passing legislation designed to permanently fix the flawed sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula governing changes to Medicare payment rates.
A bill implementing a permanent SGR fix was passed in the U.S. House of Representatives on March 26, and was hailed as an all-too-rare example of bipartisan cooperation in Congress. But the Senate was unable to pass its own version of the bill before its recess deadline.
Physicians are now faced with a 21% cut in Medicare reimbursement when the current SGR patch expires on March 31. However, the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) this week announced a contingency plan in case a deal was not reached to repeal the SGR before the deadline.
CMS said it would hold electronic claims for the first 14 calendar days of April and paper claims for 29 days after the date of receipt, according to the American College of Radiology (ACR).
