Congress Passes Legislation to Prevent Physician Payment Cuts and Delay ICD-10

On March 31^st, the US Senate approved the 17th legislative “patch” to the Medicare sustainable growth-rate (SGR) formula. The patch extends the current 0.5% update for Medicare payments to physicians through the end of 2014; a freeze 0.0% is in place from January to March 2015. In addition, the legislation delays the implementation of the ICD-10 coding system for one year, until October 1, 2015