The physician fee cut actually went into effect April 1, but CMS postponed it for 10 business days, which expire on Wednesday. However, CMS has said there is a built-in delay in processing bills.
The fee-fix is part of a larger bill, HR 4851, the Continuing Extension Act of 2010, which would extend unemployment compensation and federal payments for unemployed persons’ COBRA health insurance payments. It has already been passed by the House.
Senate Republicans argued that the $9 billion measure would require spending cuts to not increase the deficit. But Democrats maintained extending benefits on an emergency basis made the bill exempt from “pay-as-you-go” budget rules.
The filibuster was broken when Democrats were joined by four Republican senators: Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine, Scott Brown of Massachusetts and George Voinovich of Ohio, according to the Washington Post.
The short-term fix in the bill expires at the end of the month, requiring another round of House and Senate actions before that time.
Read the Washington Post‘s report on the Continuing Extension Act of 2010.
Read The Hill’s report on the Continuing Extension Act of 2010.
Read “Is the AMA the Worst Trade Association Ever?” by Scott Becker, JD, CPA, on the AMA’s role in health reform and its inaction on fixing the sustainable growth rate formula.
