WASHINGTON — On July 15, the U.S. House of Representatives and the United States Senate both voted to override the President’s veto of the physician fix package, which includes Medicare relief for urban and rural ambulance services. The House voted 383 to 41 and the Senate voted 70 to 26 to override the veto. The package is now law and the ambulance provision takes effect immediately. The physician fix package, the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act (H.R. 6331), contains an 18-month Medicare increase of 2% urban and 3% rural for ambulance service providers. This relief will begin retroactively from July 1 of this year and expire December 31, 2009. The ambulance provision provides approximately $170 million in desperately-needed Medicare relief for ambulance services.
In related news, on July 7, 2008, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) published revisions to the CY 2009 Physician Fee Schedule (including ambulance reimbursement provisions) in the Federal Register. While comments on the proposed rules will be accepted by CMS until August 29, 2008, the rules affect beneficiary signature for non-emergency ambulance transports and bonus payments for long ambulance transports. Download the proposed rule at http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2008/pdf/E8-14949.pdf