You can only hope that CMS will finalize its recent proposed rule that creates new e-prescribing hardship exemptions, now that the June 30 deadline to e-prescribe for at least 10 unique patients has come and gone. Many practices say they would qualify under one of the proposed exemptions, but the certainty of those exemptions being finalized is shaky.

CMS unveiled a new concerted ad campaign aimed to encourage more seniors to take advantage of health reform’s free preventive services through Medicare and Medicare Advantage, in a news conference June 20. But it is unclear whether private payers will extend such services to patients with older policies free of charge.

Your physicians must each meet 20 meaningful use measures to collect their $18,000 checks from Medicare’s Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Program, but many measures may be easier in practice than theory. That’s the consensus from doctors who have adopted EHRs, met meaningful use and cashed their government incentive checks.

How do private payers stack up compared to each other and to Medicare? This chart looks at two key metrics of payer performance: first, how closely the amount on the first electronic remittance advice (ERA) tracks with the fee schedule amount expected by the provider, and second, how many days pass between claim submission and the first ERA. NOTE: All data comes from the AMA’s recently released 2011 National Health Insurer Report Card.

Expect very few changes in the most recent Correct Coding Initiative (CCI) edits, version 17.2, which took effect July 1. There are a total of 2,703 changes, just over a fifth of the 12,192 changes from version 17.1 (PBN 4/4/11), an exclusive Part B News analysis shows. Nearly half of new code pairs are HCPCS (49%), most of which are G-codes, followed by surgery codes taking up almost a quarter of the new pairs (24%).

You will see very few additions but several removals that made their way onto CMS’s Average Sales Price (ASP) list for the third quarter. In comparison to the second quarter, drug prices remained stable and prices for the top Part B drugs increased by 0.8% on average. Prices changed 2% less for 25 out of the top 50 higher-volume drugs with 14 of the top 50 drugs seeing decreases, CMS says in an online statement accompanying the report.

Can an ultrasound technicians trained and certified to perform cardiac studies do so on-site, bill for the test globally and then pay a radiologist to interpret the tests at a set per-study rate?