Part B News | Editors' Blog

Now hear this: Medicare adds 24 services to telehealth list

by: Julia Kyles, CPC Mar 31, 2021

Practitioners who perform hearing, speech and cognitive therapy now have more services they can provide via telehealth during the COVID-19 public health emergency.

COVID-19 waivers will be in place until April, thanks to PHE renewal

by: Julia Kyles, CPC Jan 8, 2021

Circle April 21 on your calendar. That’s the new expiration date for the declaration of the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE) that has been in place since the determination made by HHS Secretary Alex Azar, II, Jan. 31, 2020.

Breaking: CMS proposes 11% cut to 2021 conversion factor, confirms E/M coding overhaul

by: DecisionHealth Staff Aug 4, 2020

You can expect to see wild swings to Medicare pay rates in 2021, according to proposals CMS released this morning. The agency announced a nearly 11% cut to the Medicare physician fee schedule’s conversion factor (CF), dropping it to a rate of $32.26 next year, down from $36.09 in 2020.

Influencing the substantial decrease to the CF are the projected pay increases to the core set of E/M office visit codes (99202-99215). CMS confirmed that the E/M office visit codes remain on track for their first major overhaul in 25 years, according to the proposed 2021 Medicare physician fee schedule.

Use 8 more tips for telehealth coding during the public health emergency

by: Julia Kyles, CPC Jun 2, 2020

Medicare issued an update to its COVID-19 fact sheet May 27, and it contains more answers your telehealth documentation and coding questions.The topics relevant to Part B billing range from modifier use to how to report a telehealth encounter if the practitioner or the patient experience technical difficulties.

Don’t get your wires crossed during telephone E/M encounters

by: Julia Kyles, CPC May 15, 2020

The big pay boost for telephone E/M codes performed by physicians and qualified health care professionals (99441-99443) is good news for practices that have performed audio-only telephone encounters during the COVID-19 emergency.

In addition, the update should remind practices to make sure they know when they can report an office E/M telehealth visit and determine if their state’s Medicaid program will reimburse the practice for audio-only encounters.

Login

User Name:
Password:
Remember me Forgot password
Welcome to the new Part B News Online. If you are a returning user having trouble logging in, please click here.

Your new password should have at least 6 characters.
Current Password
New Password
Confirm Password