On January 1, 2013, Congress passed the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 , which the president has signed. The act delays sequestration for two months, but assumes the remaining sequestration will resume on March 1, 2013. This means that, for two months, health care providers have avoided the 2 percent cuts in Medicare payments scheduled to take place January 1.
U.S. health care organizations have recently—or are currently—assessing their information technology operations and software systems for the effects of compliance with electronic health record (EHR) requirements and the pending implementation of ICD-10.
Payment Rate Updates CMS has proposed a 2.1 percent update to the federal operating standardized amount. This is based on a 3 percent market basket update, reduced by two factors mandated by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA): a 0.8 percent economy wide productivity adjustment and an additional 0.1 percent reduction.