As we reported to attendees of the NASL Winter Conference, the Senate broke a logjam last night and passed legislation to extend a number of important Medicare provisions through March 31. 

In addition to extending the physician fee schedule patch that expired last Sunday night, the bill restored the therapy cap exceptions process that had expired January 1.  President Obama is expected to sign the legislation into law this morning.

The emergency bill had been held up since last Thursday by a procedural hold placed by Senator Jim Bunning (R-KY).  Sen. Bunning withdrew his objection last night, and the Senate quickly passed a House-passed bill to extend the Medicare provisions, unemployment assistance and highway funding through the end of March.

Passage of the extenders bill will provide Congress with a little breathing room to consider a longer-term package of tax and program extenders that will likely carry the therapy cap exceptions process through the end of the year, and the physician fee schedule fix through the end of the current fiscal yea (September 30).
NASL will provide additional information as more details emerge as to how CMS will handle this transitional situation.
 

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