The Senate passed this evening the “Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014“, which creates a 12 month delay for pending Medicare cuts pursuant to Medicare’s sustainable growth rate (SGR) payment formula. This bill avoids the 24% Medicare cuts physicians were facing starting on April 1st (this will be the 17th delay of the SGR). Another significant component of the Act includes the delay in ICD-10 implementation, until at least October 1, 2015.
In addition to these significant postponements, the Act also delays until March 2015 the implementation of the “two-midnight” rule and the recovery audits of unnecessary claims.
