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As liability premiums rise, focus on 3 protective tactics to derail lawsuits

04/11/2022

With medical malpractice insurance rates experiencing a growth spurt not seen in many years, practices should make an extra effort to shore up documentation and guard against possible malpractice suits, even if your providers are otherwise doing everything right.

Consent, consumer protection rules control patient e-signatures

04/11/2022

by: Julia Kyles, CPC

Include patients’ electronic signatures the next time you review compliance for signature requirements at your practice. In addition to security risks like protected health information breaches and forgery, patient electronic signatures, or e-signatures, can lead to patient consent disputes and they are subject to laws that create additional requirements for practices.

With deadlines coming, make sure you have data chops to handle Shared Savings

04/11/2022

by: Roy Edroso

As the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) application deadlines approach, practices thinking about entering should consider the direction in which the program is going — toward more payer sources, electronic reporting and health equity data — and whether they have what it takes to keep up.

Ready for Round 2? Expect early release of 2023 E/M guidelines

04/11/2022

by: Laura Evans, CPC

Practices will be breaking in a new set of E/M guidelines for their visits in a facility starting in January of 2023, according to an AMA official. But you can expect to see the coding and guideline changes sooner than that: CMS wants to have a first look at them by early summer of 2022.

Claiming provider confusion, AMA, others call for PRF deadline delay

04/11/2022

by: Roy Edroso

A deadline for the Provider Relief Fund (PRF) passed on Nov. 30, 2021, but several major health care organizations are asking authorities to reopen the reporting process, claiming many providers were misled as to their responsibilities.

Time is on your side when documentation doesn’t support MDM

04/11/2022

by: Julia Kyles, CPC

Question: Under the new E/M office visit guidelines, is there a way to code an office visit when the note doesn’t contain enough information for medical decision-making (MDM)? We regularly see charts that say things like “nosebleed” or “reviewed labs.” Asking providers to update their notes doesn’t work.

Stick to Medicare’s guidelines if you revise the ABN

04/11/2022

by: Julia Kyles, CPC

Question: Our practice is looking for ways to reduce the number of documents we use. Are we allowed to create our own version of Medicare’s advance beneficiary notice of non-coverage (ABN) that is based on a financial waiver used by some of our private payers?

Shared Savings reverses slide, gaining members – and patients

04/11/2022

by: DecisionHealth Staff

More groups opted into the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) in 2022 than they did the previous year, ending a one-year slide that had softened enrollment rates in the national value-based model.

Telehealth was critical during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic

04/11/2022

by: DecisionHealth Staff

On March 17, the OIG published a data brief regarding the use of telehealth during the first year of the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE). The OIG found that 43% of Medicare beneficiaries, or more than 28 million people, used telehealth during the first year of the pandemic, and it was most commonly used for office visits.

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