Cigna Government Services announces it's been awarded the Medicare Administrative Contractor (MAC) contract for processing and paying physician claims in jurisdiction 15, consisting of the state of Ohio and the commonwealth of Kentucky.

Our records show Highmark had been in line for the jurisdiction 15 contract, but a protest was filed against the award. Currently, National Government Services oversees the Medicare program in Kentucky and Palmetto runs the program in Ohio.

Check the postmark date on the envelope of a revalidation request to make sure it's within a week of the date on the letter. If not, let CMS's Physicians Regulatory Issues Team (PRIT) know about it.

In a late May post, PRIT reported two physicians complained about delays in receiving revalidation request letters. One letter was dated March 31 but was postmarked on April 28. Another letter was dated on March 31 and wasn't sent until May 8.

The problem with the delay is that you must respond to a revalidation request within 60 days - otherwise your Medicare billing privileges are revoked. In these cases, days went by before the letters were dropped in the mail and the physicians lost valuable time to complete enrollment applications to revalidate.

PRIT says they worked out this issue with the carrier responsible for the problem, but the Medicare physician troubleshooting team still wants to hear from physician practices if and when the same issue pops up again. PRIT's phone number in Washington is 202-260-7153.

The AMA thinks that meaningful use of an electronic health record (EHR) system will be easier to achieve thanks to changes made in the final rule, but says it's not enough. "Challenges still remain that will make it difficult for physicians to meet the requirements - especially physicians in solo and small practices," said AMA Board Member Steven J. Stack, MD, in a prepared statement.

While the group praised some of the changes -- such as physician choice in which meaningful use criteria they'll meet, lower thresholds for mandatory criteria -- there's still two key problems the AMA still has (read more) ...

There are three big takeaways physician practices should note in the Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Program final rule.

1. You only need to report 20 meaningful use objectives, not all of the 25 measures in the proposed rule released six months ago.
2. You either meet meaningful use requirements by the end of 2014 or face the consequences. Medicare payments will drop by 1% in 2015 for those who fail to (meaningfully) use an EHR in 2014.
3. It's unclear how you will show or report to CMS that you are meeting meaningful use requirements.

Click here for more on the meaningful use rule

Your providers' take-home paychecks from 2009 tell a mixed story, according to the MGMA's 2010 Physician Compensation and Production Survey, the group's annual tome of facts and figures on physician pay. Dermatologists and opthalmologists saw 12.2% and 7.7% pay boosts respectively, while OB/GYNs saw a 1.1% decrease and invasive cardiologists and hematology/oncology saw their paychecks flatline. Primary care doctors enjoyed a modest 2.8% increase.

The group offers a few reasons for dermatology and ophthalmology's big gains; the former's is explained by their "ability to offer elective procedures not covered by insurance and collect the full fee at time of serve" while ophthalmologists are enjoying the profits of increasingly popular laser-refractive surgery, another non-covered service ... (read full post)