iIn a press conference on March 26th, House Speaker John Boehner indicated that a deal had been reached between Speaker Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to provide another temporary “doc fix” and delay ICD-10 implementation by at least an additional year.
The bill provides a 12-month temporary doc fix to avoid and delay cuts in physician payments imposed by Medicare’s sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula. Efforts had been underway to repeal and replace the SGR with a permanent doc fix. For more information on these efforts and the SGR in general, see the von Briesen blog here.
The bill also delays the compliance date for conversion to ICD-10 diagnostic and procedural codes by at least an additional year. After a series of delays, ICD-10 implementation was set for a go live date of October 1, 2014. However, if passed, the bill will delay ICD-10 implementation until at least October 1, 2015.
The current doc fix patch expires March 31; both the House and Senate would need to approve the bill quickly in order to avoid the approximately 24% cut in physician reimbursement.
