Senate advances 30-day pay fix; final passage imminent

by Grant Huang on Apr 12, 2010

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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