05/21/2008
As July approaches, the healthcare community is once again
bracing itself for significant, scheduled Medicare reimbursement cuts. Those
who have been following the news or reading this blog for more than one year will
agree with Yogi Berra that “it’s like
déjà
vu all over again.”
Unless congress is able to intervene, Medicare physician reimbursements
will be reduced by 10.6 percent on July 1st. Thereafter, reimbursements will
be slashed another 5 percent as of January 1, 2009.
Save Medicare Act of 2008 (#S. 2785)
represents one of the many bipartisan
efforts to stop (or at least stall) the impending reimbursement cuts. The
bill would not only replace the scheduled cuts, but would increase existing reimbursement
levels by 1.8% in 2009. Moreover, the bill would extend the present Physician
Quality Reporting Initiative (sometimes referred to as PQRI), with its associated
bonuses, through 2010.
We’ll continue to follow the progress of the Save Medicare Act of 2008 and other
similar efforts. Please check back as we will be continuing to provide updates
regarding the status of the scheduled Medicare cuts.
Labels
:
Reimbursement,
Medicare/Medicaid,
PQRI, CMS
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