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E-prescribing bonus gets much easier for your practice to reach in 2010

01/07/2010

Your chances of earning a 2% bonus for being a successful e-prescriber in 2010 are much better: CMS has dramatically lowered the minimum reporting threshold to earn the bonus, and opened up new ways to successfully e-prescribe.

Emergency update to surgery, oncology codes in MPFS

01/07/2010

CMS made a couple emergency updates to the 2010 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule before Jan. 1. The updates alter relative value units (RVUs) for some codes, according to Transmittal 1886 to Medicare's Claims Processing Manual.

Ask a Part B News Expert

01/07/2010

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

Q. How many days of concurrent care does Medicare allow? When a specialist and the attending physician bill daily visits for the same diagnosis, is there a limit? I try to coordinate with the other doctors, but it is not always possible.

Benchmark of the Week: Primary care use of imaging services, 2005-2008

01/07/2010

Summary: Primary care specialties' utilization of top imaging services spanning all four major modalities continued to fall in 2008, in keeping with a trend identified earlier this year (PBN 3/23/09).

Meaningful use requirements for 2011 reporting period

01/07/2010

Physicians must meet these 24 requirements must in order to achieve meaningful use and earn the federal incentive bonus -- according to CMS's current proposed meaningful use rule.

Conversion factor used to calculate your reimbursements goes up slightly

01/07/2010

You'll notice the 2010 conversion factor ticked upward starting Jan. 1, leading to higher payments for some services. The conversion factor is now $36.0846, up just a fraction of a percent from $36.0666 in 2009. Beware: The conversion factor will plummet by 21.3% on March 1 unless Congress acts again (PBN 1/4/10).

4 steps to take now to achieve meaningful use later

01/07/2010

You'll need to meet meaningful use daily from July 1, 2011 to Oct. 1, 2011, to get your first, $18,000 piece of the government's electronic health record system (EHR) incentive bonus. Even though all you have is a proposed rule, you must take steps now to ensure you'll be able to meet the meaningful use deadline in 2011.

MGMA: Proposed meaningful use criteria demands too much, too soon

01/07/2010

You might have a fully certified electronic health record (EHR) system, but you're all but certain to need more upgrades and more money to achieve meaningful use as defined by CMS's proposed meaningful use rule, experts tell Part B News.

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