I just got an email from a trusty CMS source: Expect a 10-day freeze on payment for all your Medicare claims delivered after April 1. Congress had several proposals to tack on another 30-day delay, but action on these measures stalled. This is basically a precise repeat of the payment-freeze-when-Congress-stalls maneuver you saw at the beginning of 2010.
NOTE: That's 10 full business days, which means the freeze is effective from April 1 to April 14. Ten days is the maximum amount of time carriers are able to hold claims, according to my source. "This will ensure that if Congress acts when it returns, providers will not be hit by a payment reduction," she writes.
Congress is now on its spring break recess, which means our hardworking legislators won't take any action on the 21% cut until April 12, when they return. I hear Cancun is nice this time of year.