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Learn laws, improve conversation skills to bill proposed advance care codes

07/20/2015

by: Roy Edroso with additional reporting by Richard Scott

Brush up on the legal requirements for end-of-life discussions and focus on your bedside manner to capture a proposed new payment of an estimated $86 for 30 minutes of advanced care planning work.

CMS proposes unequal phase-in of big RVU reductions over two years

07/20/2015

by: Scott Kraft

If a service you perform is facing a relative value unit (RVU) reduction of 20% or more, you could see most of the pain in the first year.

PQRS requirements will stay the same but expect measures to change

07/20/2015

by: Julia Kyles

Providers who were caught off guard by this year’s tougher quality reporting standards should start thinking about their 2016 action plans now. Medicare will not add to the requirements for such methods as individual claims-based or registry reporting, but it does intend to revise the list of individual measures and measures groups that will be available next year, according to the 2016 proposed Medicare physician fee schedule.

Value payment calculations could hit every practice with at least one doctor

07/20/2015

by: Julia Kyles

Study the quality resource use reports on your practice’s 2014 quality performance effort to make sure your providers avoid mistakes in 2016 that would subject them to the value-based payment modifier pay cut.

Some practices will get a break from the value payment modifier thanks to MIPS

07/20/2015

by: Julia Kyles

Practices with only non-physician practitioners (NPPs) will have more time – up to five years – to get quality reporting right to avoid the value-based pay cut, if CMS goes through with its proposed plan for 2016.

CMS issues guidance to align meaningful use, PQRS electronic reporting

07/20/2015

by: Richard Scott

You would be able to avoid snags when electronically submitting meaningful use and Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS) data under Medicare’s proposed rule that seeks to standardize submissions through your electronic health record (EHR).

Proposed self-referral changes mostly make life easier for providers

07/20/2015

by: Roy Edroso

CMS gives a break to physician groups hiring NPPs and to those advertising physician-owned hospitals, but it widens responsibility for group owners according to the physician self-referral changes in the proposed Medicare physician fee schedule.

Get paid for more of providers’ ‘cognitive work’ with new E/M codes – in 2017

07/20/2015

by: Richard Scott

You can expect new a reimbursement stream when you provide coordinated care to your patients – such as medication reconciliation or caregiver education – as Medicare plans to roll out additional E/M codes to reflect routine work you may be doing but are not reimbursed for.

Online only: CMS proposes new telehealth codes, ACO measure and more

07/20/2015

by: Part B News staff

Additional coverage of the 2016 proposed physician fee schedule includes anesthesia coding for screening colonoscopy, new telehealth codes and more.

Compare current versus proposed 2016 payments for commonly billed codes

07/20/2015

by: Karen Long

The following chart shows payments for commonly billed codes for three time periods: Jan. 1 through June 30, 2015; July 1 through Dec. 31, 2015, when the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) increased the conversion factor by 0.5%; and...

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