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The AMA criticized the Senate's move to delay the 21% Medicare payment cut until Oct. 1. The AMA, like most Medicare providers, prefers Congress eliminate the budget mechanism responsible for the payment cut.

The Senate voted 62-36 on Wednesday to delay the sustainable growth rate (SGR) cut to Medicare payments until Oct. 1. This means physicians will continue to get paid at current Medicare rates, but providers still face the cut in a few months.

You won't have access to PECOS -- CMS's Internet-based Provider Enrollment, Chain and Ownership System -- from March 29 to April 5 due to scheduled maintenance.

CMS suggests you file new enrollment applications or changes to existing Medicare enrollment records by doing one of the following:

 

The lone Republican to vote for the House bill to end Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) mechanism in the Medicare payment formula last fall was Rep. Michael Burgess, MD (R-Texas). On March 3, the OB/GYN from North Texas spoke to attendees at the AMA's National Advocacy Conference in Washington. Burgess voted with his fellow physicians, and not his Republican colleagues, the day the SGR bill passed House, he says.

We asked Part B News readers what message they wanted to send Congress as they faced a 21% cut to Medicare reimbursements March 1 (the cut actually happened, but Congress retroactively delayed it until April 1). Here are their answers, minus a few that were written in all caps (sorry, it's a pet peeve of mine!).

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