Home | News & Analysis
Benchmark of the Week
06/10/2024
The rates of administering trigger point injections (TPI) have dropped dramatically in recent years, and providers have witnessed an associated revenue shortfall for the two primary TPI codes used for pain management.
06/03/2024
Nearly 60% of small practices used the group reporting option to participate in the 2022 Quality Payment Program (QPP), and nearly 45% of small practices that participated via group reporting received the small practice bonus, according to Part B News analysis of the 2022 QPP Public Use File (PUF), which contains the most recent data on QPP participation.
05/20/2024
A new billing policy requires that modifier 33 (Preventive services) appear with the social determinants of health (SDOH) assessment add-on code G0136 on all such claims submitted with annual wellness visits (AWV). This will mean a big change in that modifier’s utilization, which has mainly been limited to four codes (and overwhelmingly used for just one).
05/13/2024
A clarification to the rules for split or shared billing took effect Jan. 1, and a look back at the most-billed codes in claim year 2022 reveals the most frequent locations and types of encounters that groups should keep a close eye on.
05/06/2024
Practices have learned to avoid coding mistakes that trigger denials of advance care planning (ACP) services (99497-99498). The time-based services were introduced in 2015 and Medicare covered the codes in 2016.
04/29/2024
There was a burst of enthusiasm among providers when e-visits became billable to Medicare at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, but that excitement quickly waned and hasn’t bounced back.
04/22/2024
When practices turn to a substitute for modifier 59 (Distinct procedural service), two options from the series of Medicare-approved X[EPSU] modifiers stand high above the rest, and in most cases the claims-approval rates are superior.
04/15/2024
The most recent CMS numbers show Medicare Advantage enrollment continuing to outpace traditional Medicare, and some measures suggest Part C has already beat fee-for-service Medicare to become the majority Medicare insurer.
04/08/2024
CMS lists most Category III — or temporary — codes as carrier-priced. That means that each Medicare administrative contractor (MAC) will decide whether it will pay for a service on a case-by-case basis. In recent years the agency has granted active status to a few temporary codes, but a look at early Medicare Part B claims data shows that active status doesn’t generate a lot of buzz.
04/01/2024
For the second year running, providers turned to modifier 59 (Distinct procedural service) most often when performing a lesion-destruction service, and denials held steady for codes 17003 and 17000. But keep an eye on a duo of lab codes: the denial rates on 87798 and 87481 shot up significantly in 2022.

Login

User Name:
Password:
Welcome to the new Part B News Online. If you are a returning user having trouble logging in, please click here.
Back to top