Medical Billing Industry News
Welcome to Medical Billing Industry News from AHS. As we all know, our industry has many moving parts and it’s hard to keep up. Here we highlight some of the items of particular importance for physician billing, practice management and proper reimbursement for physicians and other healthcare providers.
We’ve recently published the AHS PQRS Manual for 2012: you can find it here.
February 21, 2012 – On February 17, The House and Senate have both voted to approve legislation preventing the scheduled 27.4%SGRrelated cut from taking effect on March 1. The legislation goes to the President who has indicated that he will sign the bill. Below is a recap of all of the health provisions included in [...]
February 16, 2012 – CMS has announced that the Electronic Health Record (EHR) Information Center Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system has been enhanced to provide users with an increased number of options and services to make accessing and reviewing data easier. Providers can now obtain information through an extensive IVR Self-Service option. ID. This newly [...]
February 16, 2012 – Existing regulations at 42 CFR 424.510(e)(1)(2) require that at the time of enrollment, enrollment change request, or revalidation; providers and suppliers that expect to receive payment from Medicare for services provided must also agree to receive Medicare payments through electronic funds transfer (EFT). As part of CMS’s revalidation efforts, all [...]
February 16, 2012 – On February 3, 2012, CMS issued a new transmittal (CR7631) updating their instructions for reporting the place of service (POS) when billing claims to Medicare for services paid under the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS). The new transmittal establishes that for all services paid under the MPFS, with two exceptions, [...]
February 16, 2012 - Between now and March 2015, Medicare contractors (MACs) will send out revalidation notices on an intermittent, but regular basis to begin the revalidation process. In most cases, these notices will be sent directly to the provider and not to AHS. Failure to complete and submit the enrollment form may result in the [...]
February 16, 2012 – Yesterday, House and Senate negotiators reached a temporary agreement on freezing the current SGR rate for 10 months, avoiding the 27.4% cut in Medicare reimbursement scheduled for March 1, 2012. The 20-member bipartisan House-Senate conference committee has been meeting for the past month to come to an agreement on the SGR rate along [...]
February 1, 2012 Congressional Update After the failure of last year’s “super” committee, a new bipartisan committee, The House-Senate Conference Committee, was formed as part of the bill passed before Christmas extending payroll tax cuts and postponing Medicare reimbursement cuts for two months. The new committee is tasked with agreeing on a year-long payroll [...]
February 1, 2011 – On December 22, 2011, CMS announced that it would extend the 2012 Annual Participation Enrollment Period for providers until February 14, 2012. Physicians have until that time to determine their Medicare participation status for 2012. The effective date for any participation status change during the extension, remains January 1, 2012, and [...]
February 1, 2011 – HHS has released a set of 26 quality measures that will eventually be used to determine the quality of care that adult Medicaid patients are receiving in each state. The measures are part of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) which mandated a Medicaid Quality Management Program be established to fund development, testing, [...]
February 1, 2012 – On December 15, 2011, HHS released guidance outlining their proposed policies for implementing “essential health benefits” (EHB), including those health plans participating in health insurance exchanges beginning in 2014. The policies are mandated by the Affordable Care Act and define the minimum package of benefits that certain health plans must cover, [...]
January 23, 2012 – A new year to report PQRS and eRx measures began January 1, 2012. If you have not yet chosen to participate in these programs and want to earn incentives or avoid a payment reduction, you must begin participation as soon as possible. eRx (e-prescribe) Program Not participating in this program [...]
January 23, 2012 – With the many changes in CPT codes for 2012, please be aware of new codes that will be added to insurance carriers’ Advanced Imaging Notification and Prior Authorization and Pre-certification lists. Many of the new codes replaced the deleted 2011 codes on those lists or they may be totally new codes. [...]
January 23, 2012 – On January 5, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released a final rule on the electronic transfer of funds (EFTs) between insurers and healthcare providers that the agency says will save billions of dollars and millions of pounds of paper. This ruling was part of the Affordable Care [...]
January 5, 2012 – CMS has chosen 73 healthcare professionals out of 920 applications to participate in their Innovation Advisors Program. The intention of the program is to create a network of experts that will work towards improving the delivery system for Medicare, Medicaid and CHIP beneficiaries. These advisors come from 27 states and Washington, DC, and [...]
January 5, 2012 – In December, CMS posted the 2012 ICD-10-CM code updates to their website, including the 2012 ICD-10-CM index and tabular, code titles, addendum, GEMs and reimbursement mapping files. You may access this information by clicking below and scrolling to the DOWNLOAD section. CMS ICD-10 Guidelines
January 5, 2012 – The CMS Enrollment Application fee for institutional providers for 2012 is $525.00, up from $505.00 in 2011. CMS has defined “institutional provider” to mean any provider or supplier that submits a paper Medicare enrollment application using CMS-855A, CMS-855B (except physician and non-physician practitioner organizations), or CMS-855S forms or associated Internet-based PECOS [...]
January 5, 2012 – In mid-December, the Department of Health and Human Resources (HHS) revealed the 32 organizations chosen to participate in the Pioneer ACO model. 80 applicants had applied for the program, with 160 letters of intent. According to HHS, the Pioneer ACO model will test the effects of several payment arrangements to support [...]
January 5, 2012 – On December 23, 2011, President Obama signed the Temporary Payroll Tax Cut Continuation Act of 2011 (TPTCCA). The TPTCCA included the extension of the 2011 Medicare physician fee schedule (MPFS) by postponing the SGR reduction of 27.4 percent through the month of February. While the physician fee schedule will be [...]
December 8, 2011 – The Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has introduced the The Pilot Audit Program to perform up to 150 audits of compliance with the privacy, security and breach notification standards adopted under HIPAA. The program will only audit HIPAA-covered entities (health care providers, health plans [...]
December 8, 2011 – The following are some of the areas to be reviewed by the Office of Inspector General (OIG) as part of their Work Plan for 2012 that may affect your practice. In addition to those areas, the following general reviews will be performed by the agency. A copy of the entire 2012 [...]
December 8, 2011 – On November 17, 2011, CMS announced that it is giving healthcare providers, private insurers, and go-between companies until March 31, 2012 to switch to the new 5010 standards for electronic claims. Implementation of 5010 presents substantial changes to the content on electronic claims as well as the data available to providers [...]
December 8, 2011 – Last week, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) stated that Congress would pass legislation by December 16, to avert the 27.5% reduction of Medicare reimbursement to physicians. As quoted in Medscape Medical News, Rep. Phil Roe, MD (R-TC), vice chair of the GOP Doctors Caucus in the House, stated that legislation on [...]
The 2012 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Final Rule with comment period was released by the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) and the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on November 1, 2011. This special edition newsletter presents the finalized provisions that may affect your medical practice. You may access this final rule in [...]
November 11, 2011 – The AMA, on the last day (November 15) of their semi-annual meeting, voted to “work vigorously to stop implementation of ICD-10” which is set to begin on October 1, 2013, citing the healthcare industry’s full plate of changes and reforms, including the federal push for electronic health records. “The implementation [...]
November 17, 2011 – On Monday, the Supreme Court announced it will hear the case that originated in Florida, in which 26 states are suing the federal government challenging the individual provision of the Affordable Healthcare Act, (ACA) which mandates that nearly everyone must have health insurance by 2014, or else face a tax penalty [...]
November 14, 2011 – As we have reported in several of our newsletters, all providers and suppliers who enrolled in the Medicare program prior to Friday, March 25, 2011, will be required to revalidate their enrollment under new risk screening criteria required by the Affordable Care Act (ACA). CMS originally set out to send re-enrollment [...]
November 3, 2011 – The CPC is a new CMS-led, (through their Innovation Center), multi-payer initiative fostering collaboration between public and private health care payers to strengthen primary care services, which CMS states has been historically under-funded and under-valued in the US. CMS will be soliciting other payers, including Medicaid, that are currently providing or willing [...]
November 3, 2011 – The Advanced Payment Model is an Innovation Center initiative designed for participants in need of prepayment of expected shared savings to build their accountable care organization under the Medicare Shared Savings Program (SSP). This program is designed to test whether and how pre-paying a portion of future shared savings could increase [...]
November 3, 2011 – On Thursday, October 27, the House passed a bill by 405-16 to rescind the yet-to-be implemented 3% Medicare withholding rule. Health care organizations had actively encouraged Congress to either repeal the law entirely or, at a minimum, repeal the law as it relates to Medicare payments. Under the proposed law, CMS would [...]
November 3, 2011 – In conjunction with the release of the ACO Final Rule, CMS, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) and the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), issued an “interim final rule with comment” that establishes waivers to the physician self-referral law, the federal anti-kickback statute, and certain civil monetary penalties law [...]
November 4, 2011 – The long-awaited Final Rule for Medicare accountable care organizations (ACOs) (Section 3022 of the Accountable Care Act (ACA)) was published on October 20, 2011, establishing CMS’ definition of Medicare’s ACO and Shared Savings Program (SSP). CMS Administrator, Dr. Donald Berwick, stated that the proposed rule, issued on March 31, 2011, generated [...]
October 7, 2011 – A bill letting facilities and radiology groups bill Medicare for imaging services performed by certified radiology assistants is currently in Congress. The “Medicare Access to Radiology Care Act of 2011″ would amend the Social Security Act to recognize radiologist assistants as non-physician providers of healthcare services to Medicare beneficiaries as well as reimburse [...]
October 7, 2011 – On September 14, 2011, HHS proposed new rules that would expand patients’ rights to access their health care information. The proposed new rules would allow patients to access their test results directly from laboratories by request. The rules would ensure that labs covered under HIPPA readily provide the requested information to [...]
October 7, 2011 – On September 14, HHS (Dept. of Health & Human Services) issued a final rule to establish a Medicaid Recovery Audit Contractor Program that will go into effect as of January 2, 2012. The Medicaid RAC program, which will be modeled after the Medicare RAC program, was mandated by the Affordable Care Act to [...]
October 11, 2011 – On January 3, 2012, CMS will transfer the responsibility for issuing RAC demand letters to providers from its Recovery Auditors to its Medicare claims processing contractors in order to avoid delays in demand letter issuance. This will mean that when a Recovery Auditor finds that improper payments have been made to [...]
October 7, 2011 – On October 6, 2011, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) officially endorsed a plan to repeal the SGR (sustainable growth rate) payment formula. Despite outcries from the physician community, MedPac submitted their original proposal to pay for the repeal of the SGR by freezing the reimbursement rate for primary care physicians for [...]
October 11, 2011 – On August 31, 2011, CMS released the final rule for the eRx program, which included additional hardship exemptions for the 2011 calendar year for purposes of the 2012 payment adjustment. As part of the request for hardship exemptions, EPs (eligible professionals) must submit their hardship requests via CMS’ web tool, the [...]
October 11, 2011 – This is a reminder that the deadline to request a hardship exemption for the 2012 Medicare Electronic Prescribing (eRx) Incentive Program adjustment for Calendar Year 2011 is November 1, 2011. See the next article in this issue on how to apply for the exemption(s). The following are CMS’ approved hardship exemptions. Limited [...]
October 5, 2011 – The proposed Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) rule was issued on July 1, 2011 with public comments ending on August 31. The proposed 2012 estimated conversion factor will be $23.9635, a 29.5 percent reduction from 2011. It is expected that the MPFS final rule will be issued by November 1, 2011 [...]
October 5, 2011 – Both Democrats and Republicans acknowledge that the Medicare physician payment system is broken and a permanent “fix” must be established. The problem, of course, is to come up with a plan to replace the SGR payment formula before the 29.5 percent payment reduction takes place on January 1, 2012. It is [...]
September 7, 2011 – On August 18, 2011, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced $40 million in grants to identify and enroll children for Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). Grants were awarded to 39 state agencies, community health centers, school-based organizations and non-profit groups in 23 states. CMS [...]
September 7, 2011 – On August 23, 2011, CMS’ Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (Innovation Center), as required by the Affordable Care Act (ACT), launched the “Bundled Payment Plan,” a voluntary program that bundles Medicare payments to hospitals, physician groups, non-physician practitioners, and other entities to encourage care coordination and cost reduction beginning in [...]
September 7, 2011 – All providers and suppliers who enrolled in the Medicare program prior to Friday, March 25, 2011, will be required to revalidate their enrollment under new risk screening criteria required by the Affordable Care Act (ACA). We reported this new regulation in our Leading Edge newsletter, Volume CN9, on April 20, 2011. You [...]
September 7, 2011 – Since publication of the 2011 MPFS (Medicare Physician Fee Schedule) Final Rule, CMS received many public comments concerning the eRx Incentive Program which resulted in CMS revising some of the provisions of the eRx program. On August 31, 2011, CMS announced the following changes to the Medicare Electronic Prescribing (eRx) [...]
September 7, 2011 – On August 17, 2011, CMS announced that they would soon begin issuing incentive payments for the 2010 Medicare Electronic Prescribing (eRx) Incentive Program for eligible professionals (EPs) who met the criteria for successful reporting. Distribution of payments for the eRx Incentive Program was scheduled to be completed by August 31, 2011. [...]
September 7, 2011 – CMS has issued a new ABN form (CMS-R-131) that is to be used by physicians, practitioners, independent laboratories and suppliers in situations where Medicare payment is expected to be denied. The new form will contain the date 3/2011 in the lower left hand corner. Providers should begin to use these forms [...]
August 4, 2011 – States and the federal government spend more than $300 billion each year to care for Americans eligible for Medicare and Medicaid. In Medicaid, these individuals represented 15-percent of enrollees and 39-percent of all Medicaid expenditures. In Medicare, they represented 16-percent of enrollees and 27-percent of program expenditures. Three new initiatives [...]
August 4, 2011 – On July 18, CMS took steps to encourage the creation of Consumer Operated and Oriented Plans (CO-OPs), new private non-profit, consumer-governed health insurance plans that CMS states will help increase competition and give consumers and small businesses additional affordable health insurance choices. CMS is proposing standards for CO-OPs, and for qualifying [...]
Auguat 4, 2011 – On July 11, HHS proposed a framework to assist states in building Affordable Insurance Exchanges, state-based competitive marketplaces where individuals and small businesses will be able to purchase affordable private health insurance and have the same insurance choices as members of Congress. Starting in 2014, Exchanges will make it easy [...]
August 5, 2011 - HHS’ Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced on July 8 that nearly 4,500 organizations — including over 2,000 hospitals — have pledged their support for the Partnership for Patients, the new nationwide patient safety initiative. In less than three months, the Obama Administration has met its goal of having 2,000 hospitals pledge their support. [...]
August 4, 2011 – On July 4th, the Medicaid Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Program was launched in Arizona, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and West Virginia. This means that eligible professionals and eligible hospitals in these four states will be able to complete their EHR Incentive Program registration at the state level and receive incentive payments. [...]
July 20, 2011 – In late May, CMS passed a final rule announcing that hospitals and healthcare providers will no longer be reimbursed for treating their Medicaid patients for illnesses, injuries, or readmissions that should have been prevented. This rule enacts a portion of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that prohibits States from making [...]
July 6, 2011 – On June 2, 2011 CMS released proposed rules, as part of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), to allow organizations that meet certain qualifications access to patient-protected Medicare data. These organizations will produce public reports on physicians, hospitals and other health care providers to identify which hospitals and doctors provide the highest [...]
July 6, 2011 – On June 20, CMS released a report showing that more than 5 million Americans with traditional Medicare – or nearly one in six people with Medicare – took advantage of one or more of the recommended preventive benefits now available for free under the Affordable Care Act. (ACA). The most popular [...]
July 6, 2011 – On June 17, 2011, CMS issued guidance to allow limited benefit, or mini-med plans, to apply for or renew a temporary waiver from annual limit restrictions through 2013. In 2014, annual limits for new health plans will be banned as “high-quality, affordable, and comprehensive health insurance plans are made available [...]
July 6, 2011 – CMS and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), with collaboration from other organizations, created the national version of the General Equivalence Mappings (GEMS) to ensure that consistency in national data is maintained and to assist with the conversion from ICD-9-CM codes to the new upcoming ICD-10-CM codes. GEMS [...]
July 6, 2011 – In January 2011, a draft of Stage 2 meaningful use criteria was released for public comment which concluded on February 25. The recommended Stage 2 objectives are heightened versions of Stage 1 measures and increases the number of capabilities that an EHR must have in order for providers to be [...]
July 6, 2011 – On June 28, Senators Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn) and Tom Coburn, MD (R-Okla) released a Medicare proposal offering a three-year “fix” for the SGR formula that determines physician reimbursement. The Senators claim their bill will save Medicare $600 billion over 10 years by shifting costs to Medicare beneficiaries and increasing the Medicare [...]
July 6, 2011 – On July 1, 2011, CMS issued a proposed rule that would update payment policies and rates for physicians and nonphysician practitioners for services provided in calendar year 2012. Some of the highlights of the proposed rule are as follows: Unless Congress steps in, the Medicare payments for 2012 would be [...]
July 6, 2011 – PQRS Claims – 6 Month Participation If you have not yet submitted claims for the 2011 PQRS program, you may begin to participate in the six (6) month PQRS reporting period of service dates July 1 – December 31, 2011. All claims for these service dates must be submitted to Medicare by [...]
June 16, 2011 – The IRS has suspended enforcement of the 3% withhold rule until January 1, 2013. This rule was originally enacted as part of the Tax Increase Prevention and Reconciliation Act of 2005 (TIPRA) requiring all federal agencies withhold an amount equivalent to 3% of federal payments made to individuals or corporations [...]
June 16, 2011 – The first payments from the Medicare EHR incentive program were issued on May 19 in the amount of $75 million. In addition to these payments, fifteen (15) states have initiated their Medicaid EHR incentive programs since January 2011. As of June 3, over $83 million in incentive payments have been made [...]
June 16, 2011 – In May, HHS (Department of Health & Human Services) released a final rule that will allow states to scrutinize insurance companies if they propose excessive increases in insurance premiums. The rule would give states the authority to issue a review of any insurer that raises premiums for small-group or [...]
June 16, 2011 – CMS has announced an extension of the deadlines for the letters of intent and applications for the Pioneer ACO Model, which was released last month. Feedback from the provider community stating more time was needed to complete both the letters and the applications initiated CMS to delay the deadlines as [...]
June 1, 2011 – Providers and executive leadership teams from existing or emerging ACO entities interested in learning more about the steps necessary to become an ACO can attend an upcoming series of Accelerated Development Learning Sessions. Four sessions will be offered and are for free. Each session will include a focused curriculum on [...]
June 1, 2011 – On May 17, 2011, CMS’ Innovation Center released the following three (3) new initiatives under the Shared Savings Program designed to help physicians, hospitals and other health care providers to become accountable care organizations (ACOs). Pioneer ACO Model This model is designed for health care organizations and providers that are already [...]
June 1, 2011 – With the deadline right around the corner for the submission of 10 electronic prescriptions to avoid the 2012 payment adjustment penalty, CMS issued a proposed rule last Thursday to increase the number of hardship exemptions from this eRx measure. To avoid the 2012 payment adjustment penalty, the rule originally required participation [...]
June 1, 2011 – CMS has recently implemented functionality that allows an eligible provider (EP) to designate a third party to register and attest on his or her behalf for the EHR Meaningful Use program. To do so, users working on behalf of an EP must have an Identity and Access Management System (I&A) [...]
May 19, 2011 – The rule requiring physicians and others to document face-to-face encounters when ordering home health services for Medicare patients went into effect on April 1, 2011. Under the rule, a physician or authorized non-physician practitioner whose patient needs home health services must document a face-to-face visit with the patient within 90 [...]
The federal government has recently released the following two new health care programs: Partnership for Patients Value-Based Purchasing Partnership for Patients: Better Care, Lower Costs The Partnership for Patients is a new public-private partnership designed to help improve the quality, safety, and affordability of health care for all Americans. The program brings together [...]
May 12, 2011 – In April,CMS released the PQRS and eRx data for 2009. The report “summarizes the experience of eligible professionals (EPS) who participated in PQRS in 2009, as well as trends in the program over time, including early results from the 2010 program year.” Here are some of their statistics: The PQRS [...]
May 12, 2011 – It appears Congress is attempting to not wait until the last minute to discuss the SGR payment formula this year. The House Energy and Commerce Committee (CEC) sent a letter to 51 medical organizations on March 28 for ideas on how to reform Medicare’s payment formula, stating they want to [...]
May 12, 2011 – CMS released data in April on the amounts of overpayments and underpayments collected by Recovery Audit Contractors (RACs) in the first quarter of 2011. The total overpayments collected were $162 million while the underpayments totaling $22.6 million were returned to providers during the same time period, resulting in a net [...]
May 12, 2011 – You have until June 6, 2011, to submit your comments to CMS showing your support of or concerns about the Accountable Care Organization (ACO) proposed rule created under the Accountable Care Act’s Shared Savings Program issued on March 31, 2011. The program creates incentives for health care providers to work together [...]
May 12, 2011 – All eligible professionals (EPs) must successfully e-prescribe for Medicare patients ten (10) times for service dates between January 1, 2011 and June 30, 2011, by submitting code G8553 via claims-based reporting, to avoid the one percent (1%) payment adjustment in 2012. Even if the EP attests to being a meaningful user of their [...]
April 20, 2011 - As designated under the Affordable Care Act, new provider enrollment provisions, designed to continue CMS’ efforts to reduce fraud, waste, and abuse, were published in the final rule with comment entitled, “Medicare, Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Programs; Additional Screening Requirements, Application Fees, Temporary Enrollment Moratoria, Payment Suspensions and Compliance [...]
April 20, 2011 – On March, 31, 2011, CMS passed a proposed rule (Section 3022 of the Affordable Care Act) to establish the CMS definitions of an Accountable Care Organization (ACO) and the Shared Savings Program. Comments on this proposed rule will be accepted until June 6, 2011, with the final rule adopted shortly [...]
March 8, 2011 – Eligible professionals (EPs) participating in the Medicare EHR Incentive Program may begin the attestation process on April 18, 2011. EPs must first complete the 90 day-reporting requirements for Stage 1 of the program before attestation. For more information on how to register and attest, please click below. EHR Registration and Attestation
March 8, 2011 – Three congressional committees held hearings to discuss health care fraud last Wednesday. In a report prepared for the House Ways and Means Committee Subcommittee on Oversight, “nearly 10% of all Medicare payments are fraudulent, causing the federal government to lose $48 billion on phony claims and other improper payments in 2010.” [...]
The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) urges health care providers and entities to check the OIG List of Excluded Individuals/Entities on the OIG website prior to hiring or contracting with individuals or entities. They also advise health care providers to periodically check the web site to determine the participation/exclusion status of current employees and contractors. [...]
February 16, 2011 – The recent announcement by President Obama of the $3.7 trillion budget for fiscal year 2012 includes postponing the scheduled 25% SGR cut for two years, continuing the current payment levels until September 2013. The two-year payment fix would cost $54 billion. The President states that payment to postpone the cut would come from several sources including: Provisions [...]
2011 CN2 – January 11, 2011 Effective for claims processed as of 1/1/2011, CMS (Medicare) requires that the HOME place of service (POS) must contain the address of the service. The zip code of the patient’s (or family’s) home, where services were rendered, will determine the correct payment locality. This information must be provided for any other [...]
2011 CN2 – January 11, 2011 The Affordable Care Act also required CMS to create the “Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation” also known as the Innovation Center, which will “explore innovations in healthcare delivery and payment” designed to: enhance the quality of care for Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries, improve the health of the population, and [...]
On December 30, 2010, CMS enhanced their Physician Directory with new information about physicians and non-physician providers with a new tool called Physician Compare. This new site was developed in response to requirements designated by the Affordable Care Act of 2010. This site is designed to be consumer-friendly and help patients locate health professionals in their communities. Current [...]
The 2011 conversion factor (CF) has been established at $33.9764, an 8% decrease from the 2010 CF of $36.8729. Although the physician fee schedule update is 0%, the physician fee schedule final rule resulted in a number of changes in both the practice expense component of the RVU as well as adjustments to the calculation of [...]
This page contains updates from insurance carriers who operate in New England. The affected carriers and topics are lised first followed by the details. CT – Community Health Network of CT Radiology Notification Program CT & RI – AmeriChoice Name Change MA – Blue Shield Medicare Product Benefit Change Requirements for Cardiac CT Studies MA – Fallon [...]
The Affordable Care Act (ACT) of 2010 not only affected physician payment policies but will be influential in the future delivery of healthcare. As a result of the ACT, CMS has established 2 new websites dedicated to these changes: the Physician Directory & Compare and the Center forInnovation. If you have not read extensively about the direction of healthcare under [...]
February 16, 2012 The Fiscal 2012 budget that President Obama submitted to Congress on Monday proposes a 2 year SGR fix, for calendar years 2012 and 2013. The budget then assumes that Congress will find a permanent fix for the SGR problem beginning in 2014. According to Administration officials, the budget would trim the deficit [...]
This page contains updates from insurance carriers who operate in New England. The affected carriers and topics are lised first followed by the details. CT – Community Health Network of CT Radiology Notification Program CT & RI – AmeriChoice Name Change MA – Blue Shield Medicare Product Benefit Change Requirements for Cardiac CT Studies MA [...]
