On Friday, President Obama signed into law the Preservation of Access to Care for Medicare Beneficiaries and Pension Relief Act of 2010. Whew! That’s a mouthful. What this means is that Medicare claims will now be processed with a 2.2% increase (retro to June 1st). This slight bump in reimbursement will be in effect until November 30, 2010. It is assumed that Congress will come up with a permanent fix to the Medicare SGR rate in the interim, though if history repeats itself, we will be scrambling again in November to try and avoid major cuts to physicians who care for Medicare patients.

The Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released a statement stating that all Medicare claims are on hold temporarily until the 2.2% increase can be tested to ensure that claims will be processed correctly and paid at the new rate. They expect to begin processing claims with the increase no later than July 1st.