The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that it has instructed its contractors to hold claims for physicians, nonphysician practitioners, and other fee-for-service (FFS) providers paid under the Medicare physician fee schedule for the first 10 business days of July. All claims for services delivered on or before June 30 will be processed and paid under normal procedures.
After 10 business days, contractors will begin releasing claims into processing under the fee schedule which implements current law--which could result in claims being processed with the negative 10.6 percent update. If a new law is enacted which changes the update, retroactive to July 1, CMS said it is prepared to automatically reprocess most of those claims. To the extent possible, providers may hold claims in-house until it becomes clearer as to whether new legislation will be enacted or until cash flow becomes problematic.
