We still receive consult requests from physicians. Even though our doctors will report the appropriate E/M office code, can they report a higher level code to get paid for the extra work involved in preparing/sending a report to the first physician?

Correction: A chart in the Jan. 11, 2010 issue of Part B News listing the proposed meaningful use requirements for physicians was incomplete. There are a total of 25 meaningful use requirements, including a measure that eligible professionals (EPs) must "generate lists of patients by specific conditions to use for quality improvement, reduction of disparities and outreach." Providers could meet this measure by "generating at least one report listing patients of the EP with a specific condition." An updated, correct version of this chart appears in the online version of the article, available at www.partbnews.com.

This week's question is answered by John Burns, CPC, senior consultant for DecisionHealth Professional Services.

Q. How many days of concurrent care does Medicare allow? When a specialist and the attending physician bill daily visits for the same diagnosis, is there a limit? I try to coordinate with the other doctors, but it is not always possible.

Your chances of earning a 2% bonus for being a successful e-prescriber in 2010 are much better: CMS has dramatically lowered the minimum reporting threshold to earn the bonus, and opened up new ways to successfully e-prescribe.

CMS made a couple emergency updates to the 2010 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule before Jan. 1. The updates alter relative value units (RVUs) for some codes, according to Transmittal 1886 to Medicare's Claims Processing Manual.

This week's question is answered by John Burns, CPC, senior consultant for DecisionHealth Professional Services.

Q. How many days of concurrent care does Medicare allow? When a specialist and the attending physician bill daily visits for the same diagnosis, is there a limit? I try to coordinate with the other doctors, but it is not always possible.

Summary: Primary care specialties' utilization of top imaging services spanning all four major modalities continued to fall in 2008, in keeping with a trend identified earlier this year (PBN 3/23/09). 

Physicians must meet these 24 requirements must in order to achieve meaningful use and earn the federal incentive bonus -- according to CMS's current proposed meaningful use rule.

You'll notice the 2010 conversion factor ticked upward starting Jan. 1, leading to higher payments for some services. The conversion factor is now $36.0846, up just a fraction of a percent from $36.0666 in 2009. Beware: The conversion factor will plummet by 21.3% on March 1 unless Congress acts again (PBN 1/4/10).

You'll need to meet meaningful use daily from July 1, 2011 to Oct. 1, 2011, to get your first, $18,000 piece of the government's electronic health record system (EHR) incentive bonus. Even though all you have is a proposed rule, you must take steps now to ensure you'll be able to meet the meaningful use deadline in 2011.