April 1st Brings Pause to Medicare Payments

CMS has sent notice to the MACs to stop processing claims for dates of service after April 1, 2021, in hopes Congress will extend the moratorium on the 2% cuts that were supposed to go into effect April 1st. The MACs do have discretion to process claims if it will cause a cash flow issue for the provider. In these instances CMS will also reduce the payment by 2% but will automatically reprocess the claims if Congress extends the moratorium.

CMS’s goal is to reduce the amount of re-processing that must occur if Congress passes the bill. As of now, the House is in recess and will likely not act on the bill until it returns on April 13, 2021 at the earliest.