This chart lists 10 preventive services that saw the highest denial rates in 2009, based on CMS claims data. Assay tests for HIV were the most commonly denied by a hefty margin, and tests for sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) in general represent many of the top-denied services.

Q. A patient comes in for a visit complaining of numbness and tingling of the legs. Electromyography (EMG) was performed which revealed neuropathy. Are we allowed to bill the EMG with an E/M code because we can report numbness and tingling as the diagnosis for the E/M service and neuropathy for the EMG?

CMS has begun making payments to providers who met meaningful use requirements under the Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Program, the agency announced Jan. 10.

Two doctors at the Gastorf Family Clinic of Durant in Oklahoma each earned $21,250 for successful adoption of certified EHR systems, CMS says. Another payment, for $2.86 million, was made to University of Kentucky Healthcare, the teaching hospital affiliated with the University of Kentucky.

After getting over the initial sticker shock caused by the new conversion factor, you and your peers can take comfort in most of your Medicare payments remaining stable for 2011 because of legislative payment fixes passed and signed into law before the New Year. The conversion factor is $33.9764 for 2011, representing a 7.85% drop from the rate used during the last half of 2010. However, all of your reimbursements have not decreased by nearly 8%.

You are no longer required to offer patients a chance to discuss end-of-life planning as part of the new annual wellness visit (AWV), Part B News has learned. The change is effective immediately and was codified in a Federal Register rule Jan. 5.

You can get a head start on getting paid federal bonus money for implementing electronic health records (EHR) by registering your providers on a new CMS website immediately. The website is called the EHR Incentive Program Registration & Attestation System and you must use it to be paid the bonus.

Take a look at 16 new measures added to the Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS, formerly PQRI) 2011 reporting year. These measures may represent a new opportunity to boost quality of care at your practice and earn a bonus equal to 1% of your Medicare charges next year.

Some specialties obviously bill more procedures than E/M codes, while others do the opposite. This chart examines this trend by looking at the ratio of E/Ms to procedures, in an effort to quantify and compare the gap between 16 specialties that were top Medicare billers in 2009.