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).

A reader reaches an impasse when billing for total contact casts.

A snafu in CMS's online enrollment system results in a 1,500 journey for at least one provider's certification statement.

This month's tool will mitigate the hassle of filing medical necessity appeals.

Take a look at how our peers are adjusting their dwindling education budgets during these tough economic times.