Make sure you’re not missing out on a 10% bonus payment this year if you live in a health professional shortage area (HPSA). Check out CMS’ updated list of ZIP codes that qualify as geographic HPSAs in 2012.

Prompt payment discounts are an intriguing option to offer patients to get them to pay up, especially in the midst of high-deductible season. But are they legal?

 Many states have laws about how you can bill people for medical services. It's a fertile area for legal analysis. And of course it gets more complicated when Medicare gets involved.

OIG has suggested in the past that routine waivers of co-payments are a form of fraud. On the same principle, might not a reduced bill for prompt payment also be illegal.

You can expect to get paid on time despite the hold CMS has on your claims through Jan. 17. Your 2012 claims are still subject to the 14-day payment floor, the length of time from when CMS receives electronic claims and must keep them, for error-free claims, a CMS official says.

You now have an extra six weeks to complete your applications to participate in a Bundled Payments for Care Improvement project. CMS announced the deadline for Models 2 through 4 has been extended from March 15, 2012 to April 30, 2012.

Remember:  Bundled payments models 2 and 3 pertain to post-discharge care, and are the only two models that allow individual physician practices to participate. Models 1 and 4 are for inpatient stays only.

You aren't alone if you thought your bank accounts were a little bit smaller in the New Year thanks to dwindling reimburesement checks. CMS is holding all 2012 claims for 10 days, the agency reports in a Jan. 5 e-newsletter article. 

That means you will not get paid for claims submitted after Jan. 1 until Jan. 18 at the earliest. CMS is holding all claims with a date of service of Jan. 1 or later for up to 10 business days in order to test and implement the 2012 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule, CMS announced.