Congress adjourned March 26, 2010 for a two-week recess without taking final action on legislation to avert the 21.2% cut in the Medicare physician fee schedule (MPFS) that currently is scheduled to go into effect April 1, 2010. (There is a House bill that was not approved by the Senate before the recess to extend the freeze until April 30, 2010; the Senate has separately approved the fix through September 2010, but neither bill was approved by both chambers.) Nevertheless, in light of the potential for Congress to retroactively restore Medicare payment rates, CMS has instructed its contractors to hold claims containing services paid under the MPFS for the first 10 business days of April to accommodate future Congressional action. This hold will only affect claims with dates of service April 1, 2010 and forward. CMS notes that the hold should have minimum impact on provider cash flow because clean electronic claims are not paid before 14 calendar days (29 for paper claims) after the date of receipt.