Medicare Sequestration Cuts Affecting Chiropractic Reimbursements

June 24, 2013 - PRLog -- After 60 days have passed since the April 1 sequestration cuts started, chiropractors and other physicians around the country have begun to notice the change in Medicare reimbursements -- and the problems that are going along with them.  

Despite the many news headlines that surrounded the sequestration cuts issue, the reality of the cuts and the lack of clear explanations has begun to hit home.  EOB's are now more confusing as ever as payments for services pre-April 1 and post April 1 are appearing on the same page with differing amounts.  

Chiropractic billing expert Tom Necela, DC of The Strategic Chiropractor explains the change: "For any covered Medicare services performed on or after April 1st, 2013, chiropractic reimbursements will be reduced by 2& due to the federal budget sequester cuts."

Although  the budget cuts have been featured prominently in the news, Dr. Necela believes that the response from most chiropractors has been either confusion or surprise.  

"Quite frankly," states Dr. Necela, "there have been so many changes, delays and disruptions over the past several years in healthcare, that I believe that most chiropractors have an attitude of 'I will believe it when I see it.'"  

Unfortunately, the budget cuts not only reduce what the physicians have to pay but they fail to alleviate any patient financial responsibility.  Patients still have to pay their full responsibility for co-insurance, deductibles or co-pays. In other words, they do not benefit from the 2% reduction.  

This has caused further confusion among some physicians because they assumed that the 2% rate would also lower the patient's financial responsibility by the same amount.

According to Dr Necela, there is also another unspoken financial burden.  "If the chiropractors are confused about the issue, so is the staff.  And in most small physician practices, that means that the staff are going to waste time and money trying to find the right answers and to clarify how to proceed.  In some cases, this added expense may prove to be a bigger financial burden than the sequestration cuts themselves."