Primary Care Coding Alert

After a week of 1994 rates, CMS increases conversion factor.MACs distributed substantially lower Medicare payments last week, due to a 21 percent cut that hit your Part B claims -- but the House of Representatives reversed those cuts on the evening of June 24, with a vote that will also give you a 2.2 percent pay increase through November 30.On June 18, 17 days' worth of claim holds expired, and with Congress slow to come to a legislative agreement, your practices paid the price after MACs began processing claims based on a conversion factor 21 percent lower than what you'd been collecting. "CMS today directed contractors to lift the hold and begin processing June 1 and later MPFS claims under the law's negative update requirement," CMS said in a June 18 statement. "Held claims will be released and processed on a flow basis, first-in/first-out."It's unclear how many claims were processed [...]