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Assess patient population to see whether shared visits work for your practice

01/26/2015

Shared medical visits require extra personnel and effort, but if you have the right sort of patient population, you can improve patient outcomes and clock a lot of E/Ms in a short space of time.

Benchmark: Group codes with group visits show high denial rates in recent data

01/26/2015

by: Roy Edroso

Out of 13 group-procedure codes listed by Medicare, six of them were never paid by Medicare.

Recruiting tool: Questions to consider for new physicians

01/26/2015

Here's a list of questions to give physicians prospects to get them thinking about what they really want in a practice.

Part B News briefs

01/22/2015

A new interest rate on your under- and over-payments, and new guidance on pre-payment ADRs.

Use screenshots, security analysis to prepare for meaningful use audits

01/19/2015

by: Roy Edroso

Protect yourself in advance of meaningful use audits with some documentation you may not have known you’d need — including date-stamped screenshots and a full-blown security risk assessment.

Second, distinct pneumococcal vaccination now covered by, billable to CMS

01/19/2015

by: Scott Kraft

Now you can get paid for administering two distinct pneumococcal vaccinations to Medicare patients under updated vaccine guidelines released by CMS in recent transmittal 3159 to the Medicare Claims Processing Manual.

Attach the right modifier to get paid for services during global surgery period

01/19/2015

by: Richard Scott

For a patient requiring extra attention during the surgical period, you’ll want to append the correct modifier for additional, elevated or unusual services to make sure you receive the payment you deserve — and avoid denials that occur up to 35% of the time.

OIG advisory opinion: Charity can pay some copays for low-income patients

01/19/2015

by: Roy Edroso

A new Office of Inspector General (OIG) advisory opinion offers more evidence that, as long as they observe certain guidelines, charitable organizations can pay part of the cost of indigent patients’ treatment without triggering the anti-kickback statute and leading to civil monetary penalties.

VA issues rule enabling veterans to seek treatment from non-VA providers

01/19/2015

by: Marla Durben Hirsch

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has amended its medical regulations to provide veterans with more flexibility in obtaining care by allowing them to seek treatment from non-VA providers in certain circumstances, such as to avoid overlong wait times at the local VA hospital.

Updated fee schedule creates winners, losers in new reimbursement amounts

01/19/2015

by: Richard Scott

Revisions to the 2015 Medicare physician fee schedule, a brew of new cost calculations that CMS released Dec. 30, means you’ll be receiving more — or less — money for thousands of procedures and services you perform this year.

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