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Revised physician fee schedule files reveal a clipped conversion factor

01/18/2016

CMS beat its Jan. 14 deadline for issuing an updated relative value file for the 2016 Medicare physician fee schedule, but DecisionHealth, the publisher of Part B News, has unearthed one surprise in the new data — the conversion factor for your 2016 services will drop a little more than 2 cents.

Find your way through revised PQRS information to select measures for 2016

01/18/2016

by: Julia Kyles

Start with a review of the measure specification release notes as you gear up for another year of quality reporting. You need to know about revisions to measures providers reported in the past to make sure you don’t incur quality reporting and the value-based modifier penalties for 2016 data.

Code E/M established visits to the correct level to avoid a money drain

01/18/2016

by: Richard Scott

Establish sound documentation standards and adopt other internal controls such as doc-to-doc peer review to avoid losing out on revenue as a result of undercoding your claims.

2015 isn’t over if you’re submitting PQRS data

01/18/2016

by: Julia Kyles

Don’t let up on your 2015 quality reporting efforts yet. To avoid quality reporting penalties in 2017 — and to have a shot at the value-based bonus — you have to get all of your data to CMS on time.

Tell gun-toting patients that new HIPAA gun rule isn’t about them

01/18/2016

by: Roy Edroso

Be prepared to explain to your concerned patients that President Barack Obama’s recent executive order on HIPAA and the national gun database — and the HHS final rule that came with it — will have no affect on you or them.

CMS adds regions for HPSA bonus payment; HRSA announces funding

01/18/2016

You have a greater chance for a Medicare payment bonus if you practice in a region that’s medically underserved now that CMS added 42 ZIP codes to its health professional shortage area (HPSA) program in 2016.

Good omen for PT: Denial rates inch down on top-used codes

01/18/2016

by: Roy Edroso

The Office of Inspector General (OIG) again has focused its attention to “high use of outpatient physical therapy services” by independent physical therapists in its Work Plan — but unlike a few years ago, denial rates for their most-used codes have gone down.

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