During the week ending on April 2, a 21.2% cut in payments to providers, including physical therapists, paid under the Medicare physician fee schedule (MPFS) went into effect, according to the American Physical Therapy Association, (APTA), Alexandria, Va.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)—which is working with Congress, health care providers, and the beneficiary community to avoid disruption in the delivery of health care services and payment of claims— has instructed its contractors to hold claims containing services paid under the MPFS for the first 10 business days of April.

This hold will only affect claims with dates of service of April 1 and forward. APTA says the hold should have minimum impact on provider cash flow because, under the current law, clean electronic claims are not paid any sooner than 14 calendar days (29 for paper claims) after the date of receip.

Congress is expected to take up the fee schedule issue again during the week ending April 9.

[Source: APTA]