FW: Congress Goes Home Without Settling Medicare Reimbursement Issue

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F.Y.I., from the ACA…. Vern SaboeACA Delegate From: ACA Government Relations [mailto:GR@...] Sent: Wednesday, December 21, 2011 7:41 AMvsaboe@...Subject: Congress Goes Home Without Settling Medicare Reimbursement Issue December 2011 Contact InformationE-mail: GR@...Web: www.acatoday.org Congress Goes Home Without Settling Medicare Reimbursement IssueHouse and Senate cannot find common ground on tax measure which contains Medicare cut delayMost members of the U.S. House of Representatives joined their Senate colleagues on Tuesday in going back home to their districts without agreeing on a tax measure that also contained a provision calling off the scheduled 27.4 percent cut in reimbursement to Medicare providers, including doctors of chiropractic. The Senate bill, passed last weekend, delayed the cut for two months. The House, instead of agreeing to the short-term extension, voted to send the measure to a conference committee to settle differences in the two chambers’ approach. At this time, it is unlikely that the Congress will return and resolve the matter before the end of the year.However, the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid services (CMS) said in a bulletin earlier this week that if the payment cut isn’t blocked, it will instruct Medicare claims processors “to hold claims containing 2012 services paid under the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule for the first 10 business days of January†— in other words, from January 1 through January 17.Until this issue is determined, we continue to urge the profession to contact their representative and senators in Washington and call on them to push for legislation that will repeal the scheduled cut and work to find a long term, viable solution. Over 7000 of your colleagues have answered the call and sent this important message to Capitol Hill. If you are among those that have already done so, we thank you very much. If you haven’t sent this vital message to Congress, please do so today. Click here to send your message to Congress.We will provide additional updates on the status of the 2012 physician fee schedule as events unfold. If you would rather not receive future communications from American Chiropractic Assocation, let us know by clicking here.American Chiropractic Assocation, 1701 Clarendon Boulevard 2nd Floor, Arlington, VA 22209 United States