Personal health records (PHR) are now more widely used by consumers. But do these consumer-controlled records create too much of a privacy threat to mitigate the positive effect they can have on patient education and data exchange between hospitals?

The 2008 Capitation and Risk Contracting Survey, released by the AMGA and ECG Management Consultants, found the following:

Over the past several months, we’ve experienced a growing trend of patients behaving disrespectfully and abusively toward me, my staff members, and the physicians.

This week's question was answered with the assistance of Margie Scalley Vaught, CPC, Coding Content Specialist for DecisionHealth.  

Q. Can you bill codes 95165 (Antigen therapy prep, $11.54) through 95170 (Antigen therapy prep, $9.02) ‘incident to' if a physician assistant or nurse practitioner prepares the vials of antigens?

High-dollar and high-volume services are guaranteed to top the list of targets recovery audit contractors (RACs) will look for, experts say. That makes physical therapy (PT) a particularly obvious target for RACs once the permanent program goes live sometime this summer.

This chart shows how Medicare payments for ten codes commonly billed by non-physician practitioners (NPPs) will change if the proposed 2010 Physician Fee Schedule is implemented.

A non-physician practitioner (NPP) cannot inject his own opinions or observations when scribing for a physician, or your practice risks violating Medicare's rules for documenting a service.

Few changes in the proposed 2010 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule specifically mention non-physician practitioners (NPPs) - except a stinging pay cut for chiropractors, according to an NPP Report analysis. 

This week's question was answered with the assistance of Margie Scalley Vaught, CPC, Coding Content Specialist for DecisionHealth.

Q. Is a family practice doctor allowed to bill 92250 (fundus photography, $65.28) with a medical necessity diagnosis?

Medicare dollars set aside for treating illegal aliens have been exhausted in ten states, one of which shares a direct border with Mexico.