You need fewer mandatory requirements, a simplified certification process for electronic health record (EHR) systems and added eligibility to include providers who do some work in hospital settings to be able to demonstrate meaningful use, physicians and provider groups told CMS in submitted comments on the agency's proposed meaningful use rule.

You and your peers haven't seen many extra denials due to consult elimination, but the process hasn't been trouble-free, according to an unofficial Part B News reader survey. While denials seem to be uncommon, private payer billing issues - particularly when Medicare is also involved as a primary or secondary payer - were a common problem. Here's a look at two key findings from the survey.

More than three months after CMS eliminated consultation codes, you and your peers are most bothered by tricky Medicare-as-secondary payer billing, non-matching code crosswalks and overall lower revenue for specialists, Part B News has learned. While the transition from consults to E/Ms has resulted in relatively few denials (see reader survey results), it's caused an increase in administrative burdens and for specialists, a significant drop in revenue.

Congress may move to adopt another short-term pay fix - widely opposed by medical associations and physician groups - that delays the 21% cut to your payments. On March 17, the House of Representatives approved a bill containing a one-month payment patch carrying current Medicare reimbursement rates until May 1. Your rates are set to drop by 21% on April 1. The bill, the Continuing Extension Act of 2010 (H.R. 4851) now moves on to the Senate.

You must meet CMS's signature requirements today or risk an auditor rejecting your claims and demanding you make costly repayments. The Comprehensive Error Rate Test (CERT) used rigorous criteria to review signatures on medical records in its latest error rate report. As a result, the error rate more than doubled to 7.8% in 2009 (PBN 2/8/10). Medical records - including physician orders and prescriptions - without valid signatures used to support a paid claim will be rejected by CERT auditors and the claim will be denied for lack of medical necessity.

Q. Can you link me to Medicare's recommendation for the criteria for making addendums in the permanent record? How does this differ from the definition of a "late entry?"

Summary: Most common modifiers saw increased utilization from 2006 to 2008, with a notable exception being the GA modifier, a sign practices are using advance beneficiary notice of non-coverage (ABN) forms less frequently.

This tool, developed by DecisionHealth Professional Services, will help you keep a record of training opportunities completed by staff members - whether it is training for billing purposes, HIPAA, Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), or other related training carried out by personnel. You are able to customize this tool to each specific training program offered by your practice.

You must have one of seven CMS-approved software programs to report Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI) and e-prescribing codes via an electronic health record (EHR) system this year. CMS announced its list of approved vendors during a provider telephone conference March 10.

When your physicians can't be in the office, you face a potentially confusing menu of billing arrangements to cover them, and choosing the wrong one can lead to compliance risks, experts say. The key: Because many of these arrangements are informal, take place between different practices and usually don't require any sort of written agreement, you need to know which arrangement works for your situation, and how much documentation you do need.