Jan 23, 2012
 
The annual game of “Chicken” on Medicare fee cuts is beginning, as AMA members and patients are urged, in expensive television ads, to beg Congress for a reprieve from the automatic “SGR” cuts. This will give Congress time to think up a new way to reduce care for Medicare patients. It’s time to tell them to go ahead with the cuts—just let us out of their bureaucratic nightmare. Perhaps doctors should consider disenrolling from Medicare, and challenging Congress to give a straight answer to some simple basic questions. Are Medicare patients allowed to see a disenrolled doctor and pay a... read more

Jan 7, 2012
 
Additional Opportunity for physicians to Opt-Out of Medicare Due to the uncertainty caused by Congress once again waiting until the last moment to delay SGR payment cuts, CMS recently extended the annual physician Medicare participation enrollment period to February 14, 2012. CMS has advised contractors to process any elections or withdrawals from Medicare during the extended enrollment period, making the effective date retroactive to January 1, 2012. This means that physicians who currently have a participating status (PAR) in Medicare have until Feb14, 2012 to change their status to non-participating (non-PAR). This is done by writing to the Medicare contractor(s)... read more

Nov 13, 2011
 
Medicare participating physicians who decide to opt out must do so by December 1, 2011, according to the appropriately named “Calendar of Doom” produced by the Texas Medical Association https://www.texmed.org/doom/ . This means that the carrier must have received the affidavit by then.  If the physician does not “successfully” opt out, as defined by the carrier, his contracts are nullified, and he would have to make another attempt. Future deadlines are March 1, 2012; June 1, 2012; and September 1, 2012 - one calendar month before the beginning of each quarter. Later dates on the Calendar of Doom provide additional... read more