ICD-10 Delay Ready to be Signed into Law The Senate voted Monday evening (March 31st) to delay scheduled cuts in physician payments under Medicare and move the switch to ICD-10 billing codes to October 1, 2015. The bill also provides a 0.5% Medicare pay bump over the next 12-month period. The bill has already been passed by the House and is now ready to be signed into law. I expect that President Obama will sign the bill. This means that the current Medicare fee schedule will remain in effect. You may click this link to get the Current Medicare Fee Schedule for your state and region. EHR is NOT Mandatory You DO NOT have to adopt Electronic Health Records! Currently there is a lot of hype and pressure tactics being applied to Doctors of Chiropractic in an effort to SCARE them into buying Electronic Health Records (EHR). YOU DO NOT HAVE TO Adopt EHR. Although, some insurance companies MAY require you to adopt EHR in the future in order to participate with their plan. Click this link for a more detailed EHR explanation! New HCFA 1500 Claim Form A new claim form goes into effect April 1, 2014 and will be required for Medicare claims. After April 1, any claims submitted to Medicare on the old claim form will be rejected. The date/version of the claim form can be found in the lower right hand corner of the form. The old claim form is dated (08-05) and the new form (02-12). Usually there is an extension when a new claim form is introduced but I would have expected it by now if there were going to be one. There doesn't appear to be clear instructions yet on how the claim form is to be completed for chiropractic claims. We will keep you posted as soon as we know something. PQRS is NOT Mandatory The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has ruled that providers who are not successfully/satisfactorily participating in Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS) by the 2013 reporting period (Jan. 1 - Dec. 31, 2013) and beyond, will have their Medicare reimbursement decreased by 1.5 percent beginning in 2015. In 2016, the payment decrease will be 2%. Therefore, the 2012 reporting period is the last opportunity providers have to voluntarily participate in PQRS while incentives are still offered and Medicare reimbursement is not subject to penalty. Click this link for More Information.