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06/19/2017

An HHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) report finds massive overpayments in the Medicare electronic health record (EHR) incentive program and encourages CMS to recover those payments from providers and make changes to new programs to prevent future errors.

06/19/2017
Bring in the latest billing edits from the Correct Coding Initiative (CCI) to avoid getting caught up in code-pair traps that may stymie your claims. The new edits, effective July 1, encompass E/M codes, moderate sedation services, injections and more.
06/19/2017

Don’t get ahead of the strict coding requirements you need to meet E/M encounters for new patients.

06/19/2017

Question: What can I do when a particular Medicare administrative contractor (MAC) has overstepped its bounds in a specific local coverage determination (LCD)?

06/19/2017
Maybe practice makes perfect. Some specialties that billed new patient office E/M codes more than a million times in 2015 actually did well with them, compared with the generally high overall denial rate for those codes.
06/12/2017

A fraud settlement by a major electronic health record (EHR) vendor with the Department of Justice (DOJ) has some providers spooked, but it’s unlikely that providers who use that system will lose incentive program money because of the vendor's alleged malfeasance — assuming they are innocent.

06/12/2017
Tell your electronic health record (EHR) vendor and billing department to get ready as CMS goes public with its plan to replace Social Security numbers on Medicare cards with new Medicare beneficiary identifiers (MBIs).
06/12/2017
More practices are providing formalized alcohol-screening services to patients, so pay close attention to the time requirements and use a standardized tool to get your coding through.
06/12/2017
Question: Can you bill for a 69209 (Removal of cerumen using irrigation/lavage) when a medical assistant performs the service? The CPT Changes clinical example is for a nurse but my providers feel that it should be able to be billed for when a medical assistant performs it.
06/12/2017
Question: In the following scenario, is critical-care code 99291 payable for the attending physician and add-on code 99292 payable for a non-physician practitioner (NPP)? Here’s what happened: The physician spent 60 minutes with the patient providing critical care. Later that day, the NPP spent 20 minutes with the patient providing critical care. How should they bill? 

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