President Obama Signs the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012-New Law Includes Physician Update Fix through December 2013

On Wednesday, January 2, 2013, President Obama signed into law the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012.  This new law prevents a scheduled payment cut of 26.5% for physicians and other practitioners who treat Medicare patients from taking effect on January 1, 2013. The new law provides for a zero percent update for claims with dates of service on or after January 1, 2013, through December 31, 2013.  CMS is currently revising the 2013 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) to reflect the new law’s requirements as well as technical corrections identified since publication of the final rule in November.  In order to allow sufficient time to develop, test, and implement the revised MPFS, Medicare claims administration contractors may hold MPFS claims with January 2013 dates of service for up to 10 business days (i.e., through January 15, 2013).

Source: https://www.csms.org