On March 28, 2013, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) published the latest directive on mandatory payment reductions in the Medicare FFS program under “Sequestration”
No Foolin’ – 2% Medicare Cuts on April 1
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Secondary
As required by law, President Obama issued a sequestration order on March 1, 2013 requiring across-the-board reductions in federal spending.
In general, Medicare FFS (fee for service) claims with dates-of-service or dates-of-discharge on or after April 1, 2013, will incur a 2% reduction in Medicare payments. Therefore, to prevent making overpayments, interim and pass-through payments related to the Medicare cost report will be reduced by 2%. Beginning April 1, 2013 the 2% reduction will be applied to Periodic Interim Payments (PIP), Critical Access Hospital (CAH) and Cancer Hospital interim payments, and pass-through payments for Graduate Medical Education, Organ Acquisition, and Medicare Bad Debts.
Questions about reimbursement should be directed to your Medicare Administrative Contractor.
React:
Discussion
This is a fascinating development. In my practice we've seen similar outcomes with the revised protocol. The key differentiator seems to be patient selection criteria. Has anyone else noticed the correlation with BMI thresholds?
Great point. I'd push back slightly on the conclusion, the sample size in the cited study is too small to draw population-level inferences. That said, the directional signal is compelling and worth a larger RCT.
We implemented a similar approach last year. Early results are promising but we're still gathering 12-month follow-up data. Happy to share our protocol if anyone is interested.
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