Over the years, you have been unknowingly overpaid by Medicare because of changes in CMS’ fee schedule, but you’re going to have to pay it all back – potentially thousands of dollars – thanks to recovery auditor Connolly’s new probe.

A growing number of hospitals, plans and other entities are offering physicians subsidies for the cost of electronic health record (EHR) systems, but before agreeing to a deal, make sure it will benefit your practice.

This chart looks at national physician turnover rates based on two variables – number of physicians at the practice and the type of practice ownership. All data comes from the 2011 Physician Retention Survey, a joint effort of the American Medical Group Association (AMGA) and Cejka Search, a health care recruitment company.

Is code G0289 (surgical knee arthroscopy with surgery to remove loose/foreign body or chondroplasty at the time of other arthroscopy on the same knee) still applicable even though CPT changed the descriptors of 29880 (surgical knee arthroscopy with meniscectomy [medial and lateral] including chondroplasty, same or separate compartment[s]) and 29881 (surgical knee arthroscopy with meniscectomy [medial or lateral] including chondroplasty same or separate compartment[s])?

This is a table of all retroactive deleted code pairs from CCI's version 18.1 second quarter edits. You can rebill and get separately paid for many of the services in the once bundled pairs.

Providers and payers now have until June 30 to transition fully to HIPAA 5010 without penalty, so use that time to ensure your claims are paid correctly and on time. Unlike the previous delay announced in November 2011 that required providers to submit a transition plan, this delay has no strings attached. Providers and plans are required only to be 5010-compliant by June 30.

You may be entitled to an extra 2% in interest, potentially thousands of dollars, on your Medicare claims because of claims disruptions caused by the switch to HIPAA 5010. But getting the pay boost could prove difficult, as you must first prove you deserve it.

Benchmark your practice’s ratio of new patient visits to established patient visits against the ratio of your specialty, community or yourself in previous years to determine whether you’re missing an opportunity to grow your business. You can ascertain that figure by taking your total service count for E/M initial visit codes (99201-99205) and dividing it by the total number of established visit codes (99211-99215).

Waiting room wireless Internet access (Wi-Fi) could decrease claims denials from data entry errors and increase your patients’ satisfaction with your practice. Pulmonary and Allergy Associates PA is planning to install Wi-Fi for patients in its waiting room, separate from the network its staff uses, says Larry Epstein, CEO of the Summit, N.J., practice.

When your practice offers payment plans to patients, make sure those plans don’t run afoul of the federal Truth in Lending Act.

You’ve likely been getting more patient requests than ever to set up a payment plan, particularly in the first quarter because of high-deductible health plans. In fact, 54% of 284 respondents to a January Part B News deductibles survey said more patients have asked about payment plans in the last few months. While some practices have opted to outsource the plans to a third-party credit card processing company, you still must take steps to ensure your plan is legal (PBN 2/6/12).