You’ll need to get prior authorization before a patient is able to receive a power mobility device (PMD) starting on Oct. 1 if you are in 12 states found to have high spending and improper payments for the equipment.

The codes billed most often with assistant-at-surgery modifiers have higher denial rates than when the codes are billed without them.

Medical practices should prepare for major changes to orthopedic, gastroenterology and cardiology procedures as well as drug-testing codes, according to Part B News’ review of the CPT 2015 dataset and Appendix B for 2015 released Aug. 5.

Practices will have expanded access to ICD-10 testing next year, including three opportunities each for acknowledgement and end-to-end testing, CMS said.

Question: We are unable to locate the ICD-9 to ICD-10 crosswalk for the following national coverage determinations (NCDs): thyroid testing, urine culture (bacterial), blood counts, CA 125 (ovary, uterus), CA 15-3/CA 27.29 (breast), CA 19-9 (GI), collagen crosslinks (any method), digoxin, GGT, glucose (blood), HgbA1C, lipid testing, occult blood, feces (FOBT).

The good news is that if your practice hasn’t received a pre-audit notice from HHS’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) for a fall HIPAA audit, it’s unlikely you’ll be audited this year, experts say.

Florida physicians may not ask their patients about guns without good reason after an appeals court reinstated a law forbidding such inquiries. While it’s possible the law will be replicated elsewhere, experts don’t expect it to become widespread anytime soon.