Mark your calendars -- the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced it will conduct front-end testing of ICD-10 billing code submission between Medicare Administrative Contractors (MACs) and providers.…
One question we are asked a lot is "what are the approved manuals for the medical coding CPC exam from AAPC?" The most surprising "non change" is there is no…
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) may be open to conducting ICD-10 end-to-end testing with physician offices after recent blunders with its Healthcare.gov site, according to a stakeholder…
During a stakeholder meeting last week, CMS indicated that it might reconsider performing external, end-to-end ICD-10 testing, according to a Medical Group Management Association official who attended the meeting, MedPage…
In order to be fully prepared for the October 1, 2014, ICD-10 transition, you need to know exactly how ICD-10 will affect your practice. Although many people associate coding with…
The vendor charged with processing paper applications for health insurance under the 2010 health care law got a big addition to its contract just days before the online exchanges opened…
Here are the facts: Medicare is one of the largest insurance programs in the United States, and every year it helps insure more than 49 million seniors and other beneficiaries. And,…
The OIG has called on CMS to strengthen activities to prevent improper Medicare payments, including enhancements to the Recovery Audit Contractor (RAC) program. For instance, the OIG notes that RACs…
Contractors hired by Medicare to audit the payment records of healthcare providers have a good track record spotting improper billing, the Department of Health and Human Services Inspector General concluded…
The number of Recovery Audit Contraction (RAC) requests for medical claims reviews has increased “dramatically” since 2012, according to the American Hospital Association’s (AHA) newest RACTrac survey. More than 1200…
Second Sight Medical Products Inc.’s retinal prosthesis system has been approved by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) for both inpatient and outpatient settings of care payments beginning…
CMS has updated its comprehensive ICD-10 end-to-end testing checklists, according to an email update. Testing is a critical component of the ICD-10 transition, and is essential to ensure technical compliance…
The health care industry is “not progressing at a suitable pace” to be ready for tens of thousands of new government-mandated “ICD-10” codes used to describe diseases and hospital procedures…
In an effort to reduce administrative burdens on hospitals and other providers, CMS has reduced the minimum medical record requests from Medicare Recovery Auditors — formerly known as Recovery Audit…
In an effort to scale back use of high-priced imaging of questionable value in cancer treatment, Medicare has proposed ending reimbursement for post-treatment positron emission tomography scanning in prostate cancer…
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Transmittal 1058, Change Request (CR) 7767 confirms a zero percent update for payments under the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) through year’s end.