Part B News

CMS adjusts conversion factor up slightly to $36.0846

by: CHARLES FIEGL Jan 4, 2010

The two-month pay fix to the 2010 conversion factor was supposed to keep the conversion factor at the 2009 rate of $36.0666. But you'll be pleasantly surprised to learn CMS has adjusted the conversion factor up slightly to $36.0846 for 2010.

EHR 'meaningful use' proposed rule out before New Year

by: CHARLES FIEGL Dec 31, 2009

Just before the New Year CMS issued a 556-page proposed rule detailing how you can earn an electronic health record (EHR) incentive starting in 2011. The incentives could mean thousands of dollars of additional revenue per provider for your practice.

'Keep the Codes' hopes to keep consultation billing alive

by: CHARLES FIEGL Dec 30, 2009

Over the last month, the website Keep the Codes popped up to help you and your peers lobby HHS and Congress over keeping consultation billing. The site is well organized (by the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists) with form letters and a petition (with more than 1,100 signatures) to make your opinions on consults well known. But the Keep the Codes cause is likely too little, too late.

Post-Christmas update: Senate passes its health reform bill

by: Grant Huang Dec 28, 2009

As expected, the Senate went ahead and passed the health reform bill on Christmas Eve. Republicans had pledged to offer resistance to the last, but the threat of a major Midwestern snow storm led to an agreement between the GOP leadership and Democrats to wrap up the vote on the morning of Dec. 24. The vote had been set for the evening.

Epic, highly partisan Senate vote advances health reform

by: Grant Huang Dec 22, 2009

The Senate's vote to advance the health care reform bill Sunday couldn't have been more dramatic. With the Capitol still blanketed under two feet of heavy snow, lawmakers spent the entire day engaged in intense debate, with the final vote coming at 1 a.m. It became necessary to wheel 92-year-old Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W. Va.) into the snow-muffled Capitol to prevent any deadlocks based on procedural motions.

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