Part B News | Editors' Blog

by: Julia Kyles, CPC Dec 29, 2017

Practices in search of a texting policy should look no further than CMS' guidance to state survey agency directors, published Dec. 28. Even though medical practices aren't required to followed the guidance, doing so will make life easier for clinicians who won't have to remember one rule when they're at the practice and another rule when they are in a facility such as a hospital or an ambulatory surgical center.

Micro-hospital boom, cuts to hospital imaging payment, and more 2018 predictions from the Advis Group

by: Roy Edroso Dec 27, 2017

Among the experts who weighed in on what practices could expect in 2018 for the Jan. 1 Part B News predictions issue was Lyndean Brick, CEO of the Mokeno, Ill., health care consultancy The Advis Group. Brick had more predictions than we could fit, so we’re sharing some of the others here.

Medicaid integration of physical and mental health has lessons for other providers

by: Roy Edroso Dec 27, 2017

Medicare's decision to reimburse providers for behavioral health integration (BHI) and Collaborative Care Management (CoCM) codes shows the feds want PCPs to address mental health in Medicare. But some Medicaid programs have gotten there first, and can serve as a guide to how it can be done.

2018 prediction: Adoption of new prolonged, behavioral codes will be slow

by: Richard Scott Dec 22, 2017

Part B News editors surveyed readers and interviewed experts to come up with numerous predictions of what will affect physician practices in 2018. Here's a sneak peek at one of the predictions related to new codes coming down the pike in 2018 -- and what you may expect -- with the remainder of the predictions coming in the Jan. 1, 2018, issue.

Shared Savings ACOs get their own disaster relief from CMS on QPP and program scores

by: Roy Edroso Dec 22, 2017

Having made allowances in Quality Payment Program (QPP) reporting for practices affected by recent natural disasters, CMS is now giving Medicare accountable care organizations (ACOs) a similar break in both their QPP reporting and in their Shared Savings program scoring.

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