You've now got the standards your electronic health record (EHR) system will need to meet to be certified, as HHS published a final rule June 18. This rule sets the stage for the pending release of the long-awaited meaningful use final rule that will show you how to earn up to $44,000 in federal health information technology (HIT) incentives.

Start preparing now for HIPAA and ICD-10 transitions if you haven't done so already, top CMS officials reminded physician practices on June 15. These transitions - to the HIPAA 5010 standard for electronic claims transfers in 2012 and to the ICD-10 diagnosis code set in 2013 - seem far away, but you need to take advantage of the lead time to avoid major A/R disruptions and ensure your claims will get paid properly on day one.

Overall drug prices on the Part B Average Sales Price (ASP) list will tumble next quarter, CMS says. Prices will decrease by 0.7% despite a Part B News analysis of the ASP plus 6% payment system that shows a majority of the individual drugs will see price increases. The introduction of generics caused some drug prices to drop by 20% or more and brought down the rest of the list, CMS says.

Last week, Part B News detailed electronic health record (EHR) facts you must know before purchasing a system for your practice - setting you on a path toward earning $44,000 in federal incentives (PBN 6/21/10). You must also be aware of hidden or unexpected costs associated with these major purchases - which can send your EHR costs spiraling over budget.

You've got a second chance to participate in the 2010 Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI) and a second chance to earn a 2% bonus payment to boost your revenue. A new six-month PQRI reporting period begins on July 1, 2010. Even if you attempted PQRI during the first six months and gave up - you are still eligible to earn a bonus by reporting quality measures from July 1 through Dec. 31.

Last week, we told you about silent PPOs, a way that claims get latched onto your existing contractual agreements without your knowledge or, in most cases, your consent (PBN 6/21/10). Here are nine ways to protect yourself from actual or future silent PPO activity.

Summary: This chart compares the average value of services performed by specialties to their overall Medicare revenue based on 2008 CMS claims data, the latest available. NOTE: The dollar values reflect payments from Medicare only, and do not account for patient copays or deductibles. NOTE: Average payments per service were calculated by dividing total Medicare revenue by the number of successfully paid services. These 10 specialties were chosen because they had very high annual Medicare utilization in 2008, ranging from 37 million claims billed annually (urology) to nearly 344 million claims (hematology/oncology).

This week's question is answered by Regan Bode, CPC, CPC-H, CPMA, CEMC, ACS-EM, content manager for DecisionHealth and consultant for DecisionHealth Professional Services.

Q.  Would you consider epidural injections moderate or high complexity medical decision-making? Would you consider RF or facet joint injections moderate or high complexity medical decision-making?

Medicare won't pay for an audiologist's services that are billed under a physician's National Provider Identifier (NPI) number, CMS clarifies in a transmittal to its payment policy manual. Historically, audiology services could be billed incident to a physician's services until Medicare changed its billing rules in 2008. CMS then required audiologists to have their own NPI (PBN 7/28/08). You may have been unclear with how to bill some patient scenarios you've encountered since then, but CMS is now clearing the air on its audiology billing policy.