CMS ordered carriers to delay processing your claims with the 21.3% sustainable growth rate (SGR) cut for the first 10 business days of June after Congress failed to delay the decrease before leaving for its Memorial Day break.

You can be sure that your payments will be different for claims processed after June 1 thanks to fee schedule tweaks mandated by health reform and implemented by CMS. Expect a payment increase when you practice in a rural area, but a decrease if you operate in an urban setting due to a minor dip in the conversion factor to $36.0791, a Part B News analysis shows.

Your Medicare reimbursements will drop 21.3% on June 1 after efforts in Washington to delay the devastating payment cut failed. Senate leaders chose not to act on a Medicare payment fix before Memorial Day, thus allowing the sustainable growth rate (SGR) cut to go through.

Is it ever appropriate for a nurse practitioner (NP) to sign off for a physician on the physician's orders and/or interpretations reports? I was recently told that if our practice has a policy that states the physician can give permission for the NP to sign off on his work it would be all right.

Nurse practitioners (NPs) and physician assistants (PAs) have similar denial rates for the ten codes most frequently billed by both specialties, an NPP Report analysis of CMS claims data shows. NOTE: The bold numbers above the bars show the difference in denial rates between NPs and PAs. A blue number shows NPs have the higher denial rate while a red number shows PAs have a higher rate.

When you're hiring a non-physician practitioner (NPP), chances are the decision is between a nurse practitioner (NP) and a physician assistant (PA). There's often a lot of overlap between the roles each of these specialties can fill, and it may not be readily apparent to you which is the better choice for your practice, experts say.

Be aware of co-signature requirements for physician supervision of mid levels at your practice. Your state likely has requirements mandating how often a physician must countersign patient charts. Non-physician practitioners, such as physician assistants (PAs), are probably already aware of state co-signature rules, says Ann Davis, head of the state government affairs unit for the American Academy of Physician Assistants (AAPA) in Alexandria, Va.

Can you explain the difference between an "excisional biopsy" and a "plain biopsy?"

Reimbursement for seven of the 10 top oncology drugs billed to Medicare have increased over the last three years under CMS's average sales price (ASP) lists, a Part B News analysis shows. However, the overall positive trend for most of these codes hasn't been consistent. NOTE: These codes were selected based on their overall utilization and on how frequently they were billed by a high-volume oncology practice in California. Remember: The 2010 pricing is based on the latest Q2 ASP list from CMS.

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