This doesn’t look good … at least for the short term. We still expect a fix, but CMS may have to start processing claims with the 21% cut in effect. The information below comes from RBMA:

CMS’ 10-day hold on claims is set to end on Monday, June 14th before the U.S. Senate acts on a new SGR fix. 

The House-approved extenders bill is still pending before the Senate, but no votes have been announced on Monday.  If Senate Majority Leader Reid files a cloture motion today, Tuesday morning would be the earliest the Senate would vote on cloture.  Assuming cloture is invoked and the GOP does not insist on the 30 hours of post-cloture debate, the Senate could pass its amendments to the House amendments to the extenders package.  The bill could then be sent over to the House for a vote as early as Tuesday evening – a best case scenario. But, if cloture is not filed until Monday, then Wednesday would be the earliest the bill would see action in the Senate.

It is still unclear the Majority Leader Reid has the 60 votes needed to invoke cloture.  As reported in an RBMA e-Alert last week, concerns over the growing national debt and pay-fors in the Senate are complicating the SGR debate.  This fact has prevented Reid from moving more quickly on the extenders bill. 

CMS has supposedly communicated to the Hill that it would take 48 hours to begin processing claims, so that prevents the SGR cuts from going into effect until at least Wednesday, June 16th.