I can’t speak authoritatively for any state except for Connecticut and by word of mouth for New Jersey, but ATTENTION INTERNET: MEDICARE STOPPED PAYING CLAIMS.

The official “recommendation” from “various agencies” is to “not submit claims” until “the government” rules on a “planned” 10-30% rate cut for Medicare’s already frighteningly low reimbursement rates at a time when many healthcare providers are already operating at a loss with no liquidity.

Apparently, Medicare can’t pay outstanding claims at full value now, and regional Medicare processors were struggling to process the regular flow of claims before… but now all providers are sitting on their Medicare claims to all be submitted in One Big Run on the Bank of CMS.

We are. The physician association billing service claims to be doing this for all area physicians “as recommend.” So are other major providers like nursing homes.

So the healthcare system was already stressed, and now all creditors (healthcare providers) are sitting on Medicare claims to all submit “some time” in the “near, unspecified future.”

This is bad.

Aside:

A letter from Practice Fusion’s CEO, Ryan Howard:

The money is on the table… Practice Fusion guarantees that our EHR will be certified and available to all physicians who want to qualify for 2011 HITECH payments.

There several million people over the age of 65 who would like to know where this “table” is on which “the money is on,” Ryan Howard.