Part B News | Part B News

CMS lays plans for new telehealth list structure, code update policy

07/31/2023

Take note of Medicare’s plan to revamp the telehealth services list and the way it makes additions, revisions and deletions to the subset of eligible codes.

CMS locks in CAA 2023 telehealth waivers

07/31/2023

by: Julia Kyles, CPC

Practices can rest assured that Medicare will implement the waiver extensions in the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023. The extension keeps waivers such as the originating site, the list of eligible providers and coverage of audio-only services in place until Jan. 1, 2025, says Rachel Stauffer, senior director, McDermott+Consulting, Washington, D.C.

In QPP, CMS raises bonus floor, floats new APM conversion factor

07/31/2023

by: Roy Edroso

Most participants in the Quality Payment Program (QPP) won’t see significant changes in reporting requirements in 2024, but CMS is cooking up big future reforms. Statutory requirements in the program’s seventh year will likely result in a new payment threshold for Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) participants and a new “qualifying APM conversion factor” method, along with other changes for Advanced APM participants.

Plant knowledge for same-day prolonged services with a decision tree

07/31/2023

by: Julia Kyles, CPC

Use this decision tree when you train staff on the CPT guidelines for coding a prolonged E/M service on the same day as the face-to-face (F2F) E/M encounter.

CMS touts ‘most important’ behavioral health changes in PFS

07/31/2023

by: Roy Edroso

For years, CMS has been heralding its seriousness about expanding its behavioral health outreach. The 2024 proposed rule may be the agency’s most ambitious play yet in this regard, potentially adding tens of thousands of new providers who can perform and bill behavioral health codes, and offering providers new service categories and even a code-valuation adjustment.

Telehealth slips for hospital, NF visits; critical care consults rise

07/31/2023

by: Julia Kyles, CPC

Providers reported fewer subsequent hospital visits (99231-99233) and subsequent nursing facility visits (99304-99310) via telehealth after the first year of the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE). While the hospital visits via telehealth fell modestly, the nursing facility encounters cratered.

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.