Proposed rules for stage 2 meaningful use of electronic health records (EHR) mean added HIPAA obligations and risks to incentive payments if your practice doesn’t comply. The stage 2 proposed rules do not “override” or “change” the HIPAA privacy and security rules, CMS states.

Don’t leave money on the table by opting not to schedule annual wellness visits (AWVs) or performing them inefficiently. CMS clarifications on the 2011-initiated preventive service offer a prime opportunity to sharpen your process. For example, the regulations allow for you to perform AWVs once the patient is already at your office – as many of your peers have elected to do.

Practices that followed WPS carrier instructions to document extended history of present illness (HPI) with three or more chronic conditions when using the 95 E/M guidelines must retrain staff to follow the “four or more elements” requirement to avoid lost payments. If physicians choose to use the 97 guidelines, they can document the status of three chronic conditions but must record whether those conditions are improving, stable or declining.

This chart shows the 2010 denial rates of three frequently billed codes for seven Medicare-heavy specialties and compares those rates with the 2009 percentages. All numbers are based on a Part B News analysis of 2010 and 2009 Medicare claims data. Note: The 2010 codes selected had at least a 10% denial rate and a total service count per specialty of at least 10,000. Medicare paid at least $5 million per specialty in 2010 for each of these codes. 

You’re likely stuck if you got hit by the 1% e-prescribing (e-Rx) penalty this year.

Earlier CMS statements suggested you could call the QualityNet Help Desk to appeal, but QualityNet can tell you only why you got the penalty, a top CMS official tells Part B News.