Part B News | Part B News

2013 data show denials up with lower-level new patient office visit E/M codes

10/27/2014

Watch out: Our latest Medicare data shows us that E/M denials have been going up — not so much for the high-level codes practices normally worry about, but for the lower ones, especially for new patients.

OIG proposes to clarify, increase anti-kickback safe harbor protections

10/27/2014

by: Marla Durben Hirsch

You soon may be able to offer patients transportation to your offices for appointments and receive payments from hospitals with fewer compliance risks, now that HHS’ Office of Inspector General (OIG) has proposed a new rule updating the anti-kickback statute and civil money penalty (CMP) law.

Base 7th character on treatment stage, not whether provider is new

10/27/2014

by: Laura Evans

Select the “active” treatment seventh character on ICD-10 injury codes based on whether the patient is undergoing active treatment for the injury — not whether the provider is seeing the patient for the first time, according to the latest update to ICD-10 coding rules.

Busier practices with more procedures best bets for hiring medical scribes

10/27/2014

by: Roy Edroso

If you’re thinking of hiring medical scribes, don’t just jump in — analyze the cost of the time your providers spend entering information into the electronic health record (EHR) against the cost of the service to see whether you can afford it.

Provider roadmap: Next steps to achieve stage 1, stage 2 meaningful use

10/27/2014

by: Scott Kraft

If you were unable to attest to even stage 1 of meaningful use before the Oct. 3 deadline, you face a 1% penalty to 2015 payments unless you claim a hardship exception.

Login

User Name:
Password:
Remember me Forgot password
Welcome to the new Part B News Online. If you are a returning user having trouble logging in, please click here.