Passage of the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 in a vote by the House of Representatives late Tuesday averted a 26.5 percent cut in the Medicare sustainable growth rate formula and held off an additional 2 percent for two months, according to Med Page Today.
The bill, which will be signed by the President to avert the "fiscal cliff", also extends the 2012 geographic adjustments for physician payments through the end of 2013.
To pay for the $30 billion that would have been garnered from the SGR cuts, Congress will cut payments to hospitals, among other measures. The bill lowers the "disproportionate share" of payments to facilities that care for poor populations and inpatient stays, according to the report.
The 26.5 percent SGR cut and subsequent Medicare sequestration would have forced medical practitioners to cut down significantly on Medicare patients or forced physicians to treat patients for a fraction of what they are currently reimbursed.
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The bill, which will be signed by the President to avert the "fiscal cliff", also extends the 2012 geographic adjustments for physician payments through the end of 2013.
To pay for the $30 billion that would have been garnered from the SGR cuts, Congress will cut payments to hospitals, among other measures. The bill lowers the "disproportionate share" of payments to facilities that care for poor populations and inpatient stays, according to the report.
The 26.5 percent SGR cut and subsequent Medicare sequestration would have forced medical practitioners to cut down significantly on Medicare patients or forced physicians to treat patients for a fraction of what they are currently reimbursed.
More Articles on Coding, Billing and Collections:
3 Predictions for ICD-10 in 2013
HealthEast Care System to Spend $135M on Integrated EHR
Lawsuit Alleges Colorado Health Systems Tried to Put Surgery Centers Out of Business