The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is reviewing whether software functions that lead to cloned notes “should be off limits.”

HHS National Coordinator for Health Information Technology Farzad Mostashari told the Center for Public Integrity that a “policy-setting committee of experts” will “examine the issue and make recommendations on how to address it.”

You may now view providers’ Personal Transaction Account Numbers (PTANs) and Medicare ID reports on the Provider Enrollment Chain Ownership System (PECOS) online, the latest CMS upgrade that eases the electronic enrollment process (9/5/12, 8/24/12, 7/9/12, 3/5/12).

The committee that advises Congress on Medicare policy will meet this week to discuss possible changes to physician payments.

The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) will consider “whether certain payments under the physician fee schedule ... should be adjusted geographically,” according to a MedPAC’s own brief for the meetings Oct. 4 and 5.

A scathing investigative report from the Center for Public Integrity repeats OIG’s E/M utilization trend findings from this past May, while also refuting physician claims that patients got sicker and older in the past decade.

But, as reported in Part B News, the Center finds that CMS is not likely to target possible E/M upcoding in a widespread review.

CMS is in the middle of a five-year campaign to check that all providers and facilities billing Medicare are properly enrolled to do so and, following a brief lull, the process is spinning back up. In July, CMS fired off 15,825 revalidation letters (sent in bright yellow envelopes to get your attention) nationwide. The number has varied from roughly 50,000 a month last fall and winter to only 8,000 a month in April and May of this year.