You've got it in writing: CMS has forbidden carriers and Medicare Administrative Contractors (MACs) from deactivating your Medicare enrollment when you proactively report a practice location change outside of the 30-day window required by Medicare rules. The change came in Transmittal 295 to the Program Integrity Manual released June 26.

A new remittance advice code from CMS is intended to tell you that there is a discrepancy between the claims you submitted and the Medicare enrollment information on file for the referring physicians enrolled in Medicare.

CMS is convinced that once you try e-prescribing successfully, you'll like it so much you won't stop. The agency proposes to put its money where its mouth is, dramatically decreasing the minimum reporting requirements for you to earn an e-prescribing bonus in 2010.

The proposed Medicare 2010 Physician Fee Schedule rule is chock full of minor tweaks and changes to Medicare payment policy you need to know about to ensure you're able to budget and plan for 2010. Part B News has analyzed the entire rule and suggests you note these proposed changes.

After years of trying to modify and massage the consult billing rules into something that both CMS and the physician community could agree upon and properly bill, the agency now proposes to eliminate consult billing entirely in the 2010 Proposed Medicare Physician Fee Schedule, except for limited telehealth services (PBN 7/6/09). You would instead bill for new and established patient visits based on the site of the service.

The debate over how to implement electronic health records has intensified in just a few short weeks, from the highest levels of government to the front lines of medical practice.

Two recent surveys suggest you could be leaving a substantial amount of money on the table because you don't accept credit cards. With patients increasingly responsible for a greater share of their health care expenses out-of-pocket, not taking plastic could have a devastating effect on your cash flow, more than enough to offset the sometimes onerous fees you must pay to credit card issuers to offer this convenience to your patients.

Electronic patient-physician communication took a major step forward last month, as OptumHealth, a care management subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group, announced plans to offer around-the-clock online access to physicians on a national basis.

This week's question is answered by Bill Dacey CPC, senior consultant for DecisionHealth Professional Services.

Q. One physician in our group admits a patient to the hospital and charges for the history and physical. A second physician from our group sees the same patient at the hospital on the same day. Can the second physician charge for a hospital visit or should we add his time to the first physician's for a higher admit level of service?

Recovery audit contractors (RACs) will be free to target physician E/M services during the permanent program, despite earlier CMS statements that seemed to indicate otherwise, Part B News has learned.