This week's Benchmark of the Week shows changes in payment for 10 of the most frequently billed drugs on CMS's Average Sales Price (ASP) list from 2006 to 2009. Most of these drug codes are used for common conditions such as asthma, cancer and renal disease; the three big losers, with double-digit percent drops, were all for albuterol or levalbuterol.

You may soon have the opportunity to screen Medicare patients for HIV when your physicians believe the patient might have the virus or have risked contracting it.

If an established patient has not visited the office in a couple of years, when can he/she be considered "new" at the next visit? What extra documentation should we include with the first claim?

Get your new non-physician practitioner (NPP) acclimated to your practice by using these five transition strategies. Your peers say the transition is slow at first, but the NPP can better help your practice manage your current patient base and help you expand. 

In other words, the greater an NPP's compensation to collections ratio, the smaller the amount of revenue earned by the practice as a result of the NPP's work. This means that the NPPs on the low end - like physical therapists and PAs who work in family practices - provide the most revenue to the practice, says David Litzau, survey analyst for the MGMA in Denver. 

The three top earners - certified registered nurse anesthetists (CRNAs), chiropractors and surgical physician assistants (PAs) - each hit triple digits. Physical therapists were paid the least on average.

We recently moved to an office suite in a hospital. Our doctors say we can bill incident-to when our nurse practitioners see patients in our office while the doctors see patients in the hospital because they're in the same building. I know this is wrong, but I've been challenged to "prove it." Can you direct me to any documentation from Medicare that will settle this question?

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

Q. Can we provide regular blood glucose monitoring (finger sticks) for patients who have a diagnosis of diabetes?

This chart shows the average annual compensation for primary care physicians across the country, divided by geographic region. Southern providers make the most, followed by those in the Midwest. Primary care providers in the East and West region make the least in each of the three primary care subspecialties graphed below.

Download this month's tool, DecisionHealth Professional Services' E/M outpatient checklist, from the Part B News website, www.partbnews.com.