One-Year Mediare Pay Fix Passed The new Congress and Senate members to take their seats prior to determining whether a payment fix would take place. medical coding, medical coding guide You will not face the same nerve-racking payment woes in the New Year as you did in the year gone by, thanks to a Senate Finance Committee bill that will freeze Medicare payments at present levels for another 12 months. Recently, the House of Representatives passed the Medicare and Medicaid Extenders Act of 2010 and the Senate voted on it yesterday; as such now it goes to President Obama's desk for his signature. The bill will do away with the 25 percent cut that medical practices were going to face with effect from January 1 in the New Year. There was jubilation all around as physicians cheered the news that they will not have to wait for the new Congress and Senate members to take their seats prior to determining whether a payment fix would take place. "The American Medical Association (AMA) welcomes bipartisan House passage of legislation to stop the Medicare physician payment cut for a year," said the American Medical Association president Cecil B. Wilson, MD, in a statement issued recently. Stopping the steep 25 percent Medicare cut for a year was vital to preserve seniors' access to physician care in the New Year. Many physicians made clear that this year's roller coaster ride, caused by five delays of this year's cut, forced them to make difficult practice changes like limiting the number of Medicare patients they could treat. For more on this story and for the latest medical coding updates, sign up for a medical coding guide like Supercoder!