American Taxpayer Relief Act

As required by law, on March 1, 2013, President Obama issued a sequestration order triggering automatic cuts to a wide range of federal programs, including Medicare payments to providers and health plans. On March 8, 2013, CMS released its first guidance on sequestration, in the form of an “e-News” message to providers. CMS confirms that

On March 7, 2013, CMS published a notice announcing changes to certain Medicare payment adjustments under the Medicare hospital inpatient prospective payment systems (IPPS) for fiscal year (FY) 2013, in accordance with the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 (ATRA). Specifically, the ATRA extends changes to the payment adjustment for low-volume hospitals and extends the

Due to continuing budget gridlock in Washington, sequestration has been triggered – meaning automatic cuts to a wide range of federal programs, including Medicare payments to providers and health plans. While the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has not yet announced detailed plans for implementing the sequester requirements for its programs, this Alert answers

On January 2, 2013, President Obama signed into law (via autopen) the “fiscal cliff” deal, H.R. 8, the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 (ATRA). In addition to making well-publicized changes to the tax code, the new law includes numerous Medicare payment provisions. Most notably, the law includes a one-year Medicare physician fee schedule (MPFS) fix that is paid for by approximately $30 billion in other health care (mainly Medicare) spending reductions over 10 years. ATRA also delays until March 2013 the automatic, across-the-board “sequestration” cuts in federal spending imposed by the Budget Control Act of 2011, which are expected to reduce Medicare provider payments by more than $11 billion in fiscal year (FY) 2013 and $123 billion over the period of FY 2013 to 2021. The delay in sequestration, coupled with the government again reaching its debt ceiling, sets up another near-term battle on federal spending, during which Medicare, Medicaid, and other health care programs could be targeted for even more significant cuts.

The health provisions of ATRA are summarized in our client alert.
Continue Reading Fiscal Cliff Deal Includes Medicare Cuts and Other Health Policy Changes