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01/13/2025
Question: What are the most significant challenges HIPAA compliance officers face in ensuring the privacy of protected health information (PHI) across new digital health platforms, and how can organizations proactively mitigate these risks?
01/13/2025
Utilization of the operation-related modifiers 24 (Unrelated evaluation and management service by the same physician during a postoperative period) and 57 (Decision for surgery) was slightly down in 2023, but denial rates were excellent — with a few notable exceptions.
01/06/2025
The AMA’s revisions to the E/M guidelines in 2021 and 2023 have simplified documentation, eliminated unnecessary documentation that was not clinically relevant, and brought clinicians a simpler process for choosing levels of E/M services based on either medical decision-making (MDM) using a level of MDM grid or time. In 2024, the AMA also updated the time rule to require “minimal time.”
01/06/2025
On September 26, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced a $250,000 settlement with Cascade Eye and Skin Centers, P.C., following a ransomware attack that exposed approximately 291,000 files containing electronic protected health information (ePHI).
01/06/2025
Question: What are the pros and cons of performing an annual wellness visit (AWV) at the same time as an E/M office visit versus separating them into two visits?
01/06/2025
As medical groups start filing claims with dates of service in 2025, they will find that E/M codes, including office visit services (99202-99215) that are reported millions of times per year, are not immune to the widespread fee cuts impacting other high-volume codes.
12/19/2024
A new year looms, and with it comes fresh developments likely to have an outsize impact on medical practices. With yearly shake-ups coming to services and fees, along with the much-anticipated incursion of artificial intelligence and the ongoing consolidation within the industry, Part B News had ample grist for its year-ahead outlook. Below are the major calls informed by industry insiders, survey respondents and a practical reading of the tea leaves.
12/19/2024
As Part B News ponders the immediate future in our 2025 predictions, we also look back on our prognostications from a year ago. At that time, we considered fraud risk, the use of newly activated code G2211, telehealth mania and much more. Find the full recap below.
12/19/2024
The health care-related appointments announced by the incoming president have been controversial, to say the least. In contrast to Trump’s previous HHS Secretary appointees — congressman and physician Tom Price, and pharmaceutical executive Alex Azar — the current nominee, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has no direct experience with the health care bureaucracy except as a decidedly hostile critic.
12/19/2024
It appears many medical groups are planning to stanch the coming Medicare fee schedule payment cuts by making a concerted effort to overturn denials and increase their patient collections. They also want to expand service offerings into newly minted care management codes and other services.

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