The National Organization of Nurse Practitioner Faculties (NONPF) has identified several portions of the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act of 2008 (ARRA) that will "... help nurse practitioners provide quality, cost-effective care to communities across the country," the NONPF says in a press release.

Solo practitioners who enrolled in Medicare before November 2003 won't be able to access their 2007 Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI) feedback report until they update their enrollment data through CMS's online enrollment system, the agency said.

An upstart practice figured out which of its insurance payers provided the highest reimbursement for services. Physicians in the practice wanted to build a larger patient base with that insurance carrier and decided to spend two days administering flu shots -- charging only its cost -- at a company offering the insurance to its employees. 

The 2009 Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI) reporting period has already seen its fair share of code and measure-related errors (PBN 3/30/09), but CMS admitted the existence of another set of errors during an April 22 open door call -- this time pertaining to radiation therapy codes for prostate cancer.

The Senate Finance Committee and a roundtable of experts hashed out the pros and cons of reforming the healthcare delivery system, including bundling more of your payments and encouraging coordinated care.

This chart examines denial rates for three primary care specialties - general practice, family practice and internal medicine - from 2005 to 2007. Denial rates are based on the total number of denied services divided by the total number of claims filed by each specialty.

You're not required to list non-covered services on Medicare's new Advance Beneficiary Notice of Noncoverage (ABN), but experts say you're more likely to get payments from patients for services if you do.

This week's question is answered by Sean Weiss CPC, vice president of DecisionHealth Professional Services. 

Q. One of our doctors sees a patient in a nursing home. When the patient was moved to an "assisted living facility" the doctor billed the visit as a new patient because the patient is in a new place of service. Is this correct?

Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius says she wants to fix Medicare reimbursement rates and reward physicians for providing higher quality of care if confirmed as Secretary of HHS. Sebelius' nomination has been on hold while Senators waited for answers to questions submitted to her in writing. Her responses to questions from Senate Finance Committee members - over 137 pages - were recently posted on the committee's Web site and provide a glimpse into how she'd reform the Medicare program.

This week we've analyzed how much medical revenue is generated per physician among top-performing practices -- as well as everyone else. This week's Benchmark is based on data from the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA).