Doctors Postpone Care Until Medicare Issue Resolved
Threats of lowered Medicare payments have been postponed again until June 1.
ACP’s Neil Kirschner, Ph.D., had reported that some physicians were postponing non-emergency appointments until the issue resolved.
Medicare had announced Thursday that it would start paying doctors’ claims at the lower rate. Now, restored payment levels are retroactive to April 1, so internists will be paid at the 2009 rate for all services provided in April.
Included in the legislation are extensions of unemployment benefits to restore aid to thousands of Americans who had exhausted their benefits or whose eligibility was expiring.
(MedScape, Washington Post, New York Times)
*This blog post was originally published at ACP Internist*