Part B News | Part B News

Avoid Medicare denials with proper modifiers for services to hospice patients

01/27/2014

Use modifiers GW (Service unrelated to terminal condition) and GV (Attending physician not employed or paid under agreement by the patient’s hospice provider) for your hospice patient-related claims to avoid Medicare denials as payers eye hospice claims for wrongful payments.

Use safety guides to get improved performance from your EHR, vendor

01/27/2014

by: Roy Edroso

New electronic health records (EHR) safety guides from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) show that even a system that appears to be in good working order is only as good as its back-up.

New Senate Medicare plan shows more support for coordinated care

01/27/2014

by: Roy Edroso

A bill unveiled on Jan. 15 by Ron Wyden, D-Ore., the soon-to-be new chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, suggests that the future of the federal health care program is in coordinated care models and pay for performance.

Benchmark: Denial rates by specialty for high-level, established E/M visits, 2010-2012

01/27/2014

by: Karen Long

Denial rates for 99214 (Level 4 established patient office visit) and 99215 (Level 5 established patient office visit) increased almost across the board for the 10 specialties that billed the codes most often in 2012.

2014 90-day global calendar

01/27/2014

by: Laura Evans

Save time calculating the date when your 90-day global period has ended by using this calendar for 2014.

How to prove you are in PECOS to avoid new ordering, referring denials

01/17/2014

by: Scott Kraft

Your practice’s claims now will be denied when the ordering or referring provider information on the claim is either missing or not valid, an error that previously only got you an informational warning.

Watch what you copy-paste as OIG gets serious about stopping cloned notes

01/17/2014

by: Roy Edroso

Prepare your practice for new scrutiny as the Office of Inspector General (OIG) pushes CMS contractors to look more carefully at suspected cloned notes and overdocumentation caused by electronic health record (EHR) workarounds.

Revised CPT description changes how you bill for impacted cerumen removal in 2014

01/17/2014

by: Scott Kraft

A relatively minor change to the code description for 69210, the code for removal of impacted cerumen, means you’ll need modifiers to bill for this service correctly in 2014, experts tell Part B News.

Review payer requirements to capture all your tobacco cessation payments

01/17/2014

by: Jennifer Clampet

Now that some Medicare contractors require smoking patients to quit before major joint replacements, it might make sense for practices to offer — and get reimbursed for — tobacco cessation counseling. If you decide to provide this service, make sure to document and code the counseling sessions correctly to ensure proper reimbursement.

Proposal could clear HIPAA hurdles to reporting patients to gun ban registry

01/17/2014

by: Roy Edroso

If CMS finalizes a new proposed rule, covered entities, including health care providers, could feel more confident that they won’t violate HIPAA when they report someone who is legally prohibited on mental health grounds from purchasing a gun to a federal database.

Login

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