It's been about six weeks since the first Recovery Audit Contractor (RAC) targets were publicly posted, but less than 100 RAC demand letters have been sent out nationwide, CMS officials tell Part B News.

Your Recovery Audit Contractor (RAC) is allowed to send you only one complex review request every 45 days -- easing a potentially huge burden for fulfilling record requests, CMS officials tell Part B News.

Prepare for the more than 19,000 changes about to take place in the latest round of Correct Coding Initiative (CCI) edits released by CMS. CCI edits block you from getting paid for services Medicare considers to be not separately payable -- edits you can often override using a modifier when appropriate.

A physician can be a your best friend, but these relationships can sour at any moment, practice consultant Marge McQuade of Tampa, Fla., told attendees at the Physician Office Managers Association of America in Baltimore.

You would see a 0.5% boost to your Medicare payments in 2010 - but no permanent fix to the payment formula that continually acts to cut your payments - under the first official draft of the Senate Finance Committee's health reform bill. A permanent SGR fix is "a separate side issue," that will be addressed this year, Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) said in a televised press conference with reporters Sept. 16.

Save money and improve patient payment behavior by sticking to a clear, tough-but-fair collections policy, experts say.  The key: Work with patients who tell you they have problems paying, but don't be afraid to send unresponsive patients to collections, even with the economy still sputtering.

Your Recovery Audit Contractor (RAC) can't disregard the coverage conditions in your local coverage determinations (LCDs) to demand overpayments on any claim in a complex review, CMS officials say. If a RAC believes you should've been paid for a service despite a relevant LCD saying otherwise, it has the power to override the LCD and approve the claim,

When our surgeons are asked to consult on a new patient in the hospital setting, is it mandatory that we get the patient's signature authorizing Medicare to pay our claim?

Only one piece of the health reform puzzle remains, and it's in the Senate Finance Committee, which recently leaked a "draft framework" for health reform obtained by Part B News (see story, here).

Here's a rundown on all the major provisions in this draft that affect you and your peers:

Consult codes should be revised instead of eliminated, several medical societies said in comments on the proposed 2010 Physician Fee Schedule (PBN 8/24/09). The American College of Cardiology (ACC), for example weighed in that it "vehemently disagrees with the CMS proposal to eliminate payment for consultations and urges CMS to withdraw this portion of the proposed rule."