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Senate advances 30-day pay fix; final passage imminent

The Senate advances the pay-fix bill on April 12 (image from C-SPAN.org)The Senate just voted to advance H.R. 4851 (the "Continuing Extension Act") to a final vote. This bill puts in a place a 30-day Medicare pay fix effective from April 1 to April 30. While you and your peers probably see the pay fix as this bill's biggest provision, the mainstream media will probably be calling this the short-term jobless benefits bill, because this legislation also extends jobless benefits until May 5.

NOTE: Technically the bill hasn't yet passed; this vote was to invoke cloture, which prevents any further delays via filibuster. But support for the cloture vote makes actual passage just a formality at this point. Expect a vote on actual passage within 48 hours.

The final cloture vote was 60 in favor and 34 against, with four Republicans crossing party lines to support the bill. Remember: CMS put a 10-day freeze on payment processing in effect on April 1, so you won't see any change to your payments on affected claims. This is good for 10 business days, so the freeze effectively ends April 14.

If there's no action by April 30, the 21% cut mandated by the sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula will once again take effect, at which CMS is again likely to institute a temporary 10-day payment freeze, the maximum time it can do so under law. 

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Reader Comments (9)

Anyone still following this thread should see our final story on the 60-day pay fix that passed late April 15. We'll use the Part B News Blog to keep you apprised of any updates from CMS on claims processing impact.

See update/new blog post. In short, they're still working on it.

So -what is the status today?

It's looking very likely the Senate will vote again before 5 pm ET. All is not yet lost.

Arggh. Today's vote failed, because Senator Leahy, (D-VT) was absent at a funeral of a close friend. Therefore the Dems were short one vote.

I assume that means CMS has no choice and must start processing claims tomorrow that it received 10 days ago, at the 21% cut rate. I don't know how soon before the Senate can vote again.

The cloture vote itself is just a procedural step, but once this bill passes, the payment fix will be extended until April 30.

There may be some additional wrinkles, as Senator Max Baucus introduced an amendment that would make this bill extend the fix through May 30, granting an extra 30 days. But it may or may not survive.

The bill will come before the Senate for a final vote later today, so things should be official by tomorrow morning.

Grant,

WIth the final cloture vote being passed does that extend the cut until APril 30th? 

Hi Debra, I'm not sure exactly what you mean when you say "payment floor." The minimum GPCI floor was restored retroactively to 1.000 in the health reform bill, which has already been passed.

Not sure how it can be said Medicare delay not impacting as the payment floor will change unless Medicare is lessening the payment floor for the hold time

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