On Thursday, March 27, 2014, the House of Representatives approved a one-year postponement of the 24% SGR cut in Medicare physician payment rates slated to take effect today, April 1, 2014. However, the legislation went well beyond temporarily fixing the SGR problem. It also DELAYED the scheduled October 1, 2014 implementation of ICD-10 for one year. The legislation prohibits the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services from mandating use of ICD-10 until October 1, 2015. The legislation was passed by the Senate yesterday evening and President Obama is expected to sign the legislation into law shortly.
Accordingly, the SGR extension approved by Congress will remain in effect for 12 months, expiring March 31, 2015. In addition, the new effective date for conversion to the ICD-10 code set will be October 1, 2015.
Precision is relieved that physicians will not be subject to a dramatic cut in Medicare payments and will continue to advocate for a permanent solution to the SGR problem. Precision will also continue to prepare its clients for ICD-10 at the pace that is optimal for each client through proactive education, improvement to clinical documentation, practice and testing. Please contact us if you have any questions regarding the legislation or its impact on your practice.
