Congress Delays Medicare Fee Cuts For Chiropractors Until May 31
On April 15, President Obama signed legislation that will delay the scheduled 21% Medicare fee decrease until May 31, 2010.

SEATTLE, WA April 18, 2010 /24-7PressRelease/ -- On April 15, President Obama signed legislation that will delay the scheduled 21% Medicare fee decrease until May 31, 2010. For chiropractors and other physicians in the Medicare program, the battle is not yet won, but this delay provides Congress with additional time to develop a longer term solution to the proposed cuts.

"Even though the fee cuts technically did not take place, chiropractors still may have to take action." says Dr. Tom Necela, who is President of the consulting firm The Strategic Chiropractor and author of a popular blog dedicated to chiropractic billing, coding and documentation.

Action may be required because as of April 15, 2010, CMS had started to pay claims from April 1 at the lower fee schedule amount that was initially proposed. Medicare promises to reprocess payments at the higher amount after Congressional action to override the cut. CMS expects to automatically reprocess claims paid and pay doctors the difference unless the doctor submitted the claim with a fee lower than the new fee schedule amount.

Based on this information, Necela recommends that chiropractors who received a lower payment than anticipated should resubmit the claim for reprocessing. In addition, unless cash flow is tight, chiropractors may choose to wait before submitting claims for April services until Medicare reports that it can process and pay those claims at the proper rate in order to avoid the accounting difficulties that those steps could create.

The Medicare physician fee schedule was initially scheduled to have been cut 21 percent on January. 1, 2010. Congress acted late last year to freeze payment rates at 2009 levels through the end of February. Congress then acted again to extend the freeze through the end of March. According to the latest developments, fee cuts are now delayed through May 31, 2010.

For more information about these fee cuts or other billing, coding and documentation requirements may affect chiropractors, go to http://strategicdc.com/blog. The American Chiropractic Association has also organized a protest against these fee cuts. Interested chiropractors can find more information on how to fight this proposal at www.amerchiro.org.

Press Release Contact Information:

Tom Necela
The Strategic Chiropractor
President
93 S. Jackson #34350
Seattle, WA
USA 98104
Voice: (253) 370-6156
Website: Visit Our Website