As we recently reported, yesterday, March 26, by a vote of 392 – 37, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 2, the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015, which, among other things, would permanently repeal and replace the SGR formula.
The Senate adjourned at approximately 4:00am today without taking any action on H.R. 2. The Senate is now on a two week “state work period” and will reconvene on April 13.
The Senate Leadership has said that the SGR bill will be one of the first orders of business on their agenda when the Senate reconvenes. Furthermore, Precision expects that when the Senate does act in concert with the House, any SGR fix they adopt will be retroactive to April 1. In addition, the President has said that he will sign H.R. 2 as soon as it gets to his desk.
We believe the long-term prospects for this bill are positive but the SGR cut scheduled to take effect on April 1 will occur. Again, we remain optimistic that Congress will adopt and the President will sign into law a permanent SGR fix. Unfortunately, we do not yet know the exact timing of those actions and how this might affect the processing of Medicare claims.
We will continue to keep you updated with the latest information.
