Courtesy AMA Morning Rounds [March 30, 2015] — Senate must pass SGR fix by April 14 to avert payment cuts.
USA Today (3/28, Kelly) reported that the Senate on Friday “postponed for two weeks a vote on a bill that would prevent a 21% cut in payments on April 1 to doctors who treat Medicare patients.” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) promised to take up the measure, which would repeal Medicare’s sustainable growth rate formula, after Congress returns from recess on April 13. “There’s every reason to believe it’s going to pass the Senate by a very large majority,” McConnell said Friday. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services “says that it takes a minimum of 14 days to pay claims from doctors, giving senators just enough time to act before any checks go out.”
Likewise, the Washington Times (3/30, Howell) reports that the Administration “has a two-week grace period before it would actually have to begin cutting payments.” McConnell said of the CMS, “They can handle a two-week gap.” Still, the American Medical Association said in a statement, “Unfortunately, there really isn’t much we can do if things go beyond the 14th.”
