Advocacy “Did You Know?” March 14, 2024

New from the NCMGMA Advocacy Committee, we are featuring a weekly digest, “Did You Know?” spotlighting important healthcare advocacy news and events. Keep checking back and subscribe to NCMGMA News to stay current on all the latest updates!

Aetna® Update on Change Healthcare Service Interruption

On February 21, Change Healthcare took several of their services offline in response to a cyber security incident they experienced. This is impacting certain Aetna business operations, as well as the operations of other companies nationally. There is no indication that Aetna’s systems have been compromised. We’re committed to ensuring access to care as we navigate through this network disruption. We have business continuity plans in place to minimize disruption of service and apologize for any inconvenience our network providers and members may experience. We will continue to utilize our business continuity plans to minimize disruption until the Change Healthcare services are restored.

View the complete update here

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Medicare Payment – Relief But No Reversal

Originally published in the March 11th NC Medical Society’s Capitol Chronicle
Reprinted with permission from the NCMS

Last week, Congress took significant action by enacting a spending package to fund the federal government. There was, however, a significant omission in the $460B spending bill– a reversal of the 3.37% Medicare physician payment cut for 2024. Rather than eliminating the cut, as the NC Medical Society and our partner medical societies had lobbied for, Congress instead reduced the pay reduction by 1.68%. This adjusted rate will apply to Medicare claims going forward and will not be retroactive to the first of the year.

Access the complete posting here