Part B News | Part B News

Advance preview -- Indicator, descriptor changes highlight first quarter fee schedule update

04/15/2013

Catheter placement codes 36222-36228 will see their bilateral indicators changed from 0 (bilateral indicator does not apply) to 1 (150% payment adjustment when billed with modifier 50), a change retroactive to Jan. 1, 2013, CMS announced in transmittal 2677 to the Medicare Claims Processing Manual.

Practice manager title, ICD-10 prep earn higher pay, 2% raise in 2012

04/11/2013

by: Lauren C. Williams

Congratulations to the more than half of practice managers who got pay raises last year, according to the results of the 2013 Part B News Salary Survey. But much like Part B News learned of billers and coders, those increases came with more job duties such as ICD-10 training and transitioning the practice to an electronic health records (EHR) system.

Cuts to in-office ancillary services, drug payments in 2014 Obama budget

04/11/2013

by: Karen Long

Medicare proposals — such as excluding services from the in-office ancillary services exception — in President Barack Obama’s 2014 budget could save $371 billion over 10 years.

CMS to begin denials May 1 when ordering doc isn’t enrolled in Medicare

04/11/2013

by: Laura Evans

Providers of Part B services such as lab tests, imaging and durable medical equipment (DME) risk denials May 1 if the ordering providers for these services aren’t enrolled with Medicare and eligible to make the orders under Medicare rules.

You now must keep ordering and referring physicians’ documentation for 7 years

04/11/2013

by: Laura Evans

If you order or provide supplies and services such as durable medical equipment (DME), lab tests, imaging or home health, you now must keep documentation of the orders in the patient’s record for at least seven years, according to a CMS transmittal.

Making sense of the salary numbers

04/11/2013

by: Lauren C. Williams

Here are stats for two practice managers in different parts of the country. Compare them, and your own, with the averages reported and graphed from the survey.

Benchmark: Experience, practice size determine practice manager pay

04/11/2013

by: Lauren C. Williams

Salaries for practice managers — including those who identify as business office and office mangers — range from just more than $45,000 to more than $100,000 a year. But when it comes to practice size, larger practices pay their managers more.

3 ways to save money on next year’s taxes with overlooked credits

04/09/2013

by: Karen Long

Go after often-overlooked tax credits and exemptions that are “low-hanging fruit” and save your practice or yourself hundreds if not thousands of dollars, advises Mark Estroff, CPA, principal at PYA GatesMoore in Atlanta.

Watch your Part B claims when hospital shifts its place of service

04/08/2013

by: Scott Kraft

A policy shift that liberalizes the rules for when hospitals can shift their billing from Part A to Part B has the potential to impact payments you may receive for related services, though experts believe Medicare administrative contractors (MACs) won’t look that deeply when claims shift.

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