Congress Passes Delay of Scheduled Medicare Cut

On Thursday, the U.S. House of Representatives approved the legislation (H.R. 3962) that passed in the Senate last week, which postpones cuts to Medicare physicians' reimbursement until November 2010, effectively postponing this issue until after the mid-term elections.  The $6.5 billion bill reverses the 21% payment cut that took effect June 18th and affected all Medicare claims dated June 1, 2010 or later, and passed in a 417-1 vote.  The measure increases payments by 2.2% for six months, applying retroactively to June 1st.  President Obama signed the bill into law this morning, and CMS promises to quickly process retroactive payment claims.