Information Regarding the Holding of June 2010 Claims for Services Paid Under the 2010 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule

VHCA (5/28/2010)

The Continuing Extension Act of 2010, enacted on April 15, 2010, extended the zero percent (0%) update to the 2010 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) through May 31, 2010.  The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) believes Congress is working to avert the negative update scheduled to take effect June 1, 2010.  To avoid disruption in the delivery of health care services to beneficiaries and payment of claims for physicians, non-physician practitioners, and other providers of services paid under the MPFS, CMS has instructed its contractors to hold claims containing services paid under the MPFS for the first 10 business days of June.  This hold will only affect MPFS claims with dates of service June 1, 2010, and later. 

This hold should have minimum impact on provider cash flow because, under the current law, clean electronic claims are not paid any sooner than 14 calendar days (29 for paper claims) after the date of receipt. 

Be on the alert for more information about the 2010 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Update.