Overview On July 31, 2017, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a final rule outlining fiscal year (FY) 2018 Medicare payment policies and rates for the Inpatient…
I often get the question, “What should my monthly numbers be?” My first response is, taking into account collections among other things affecting their practice, “What are your minimum requirements,…
Ohio doctors would report the specific diagnosis of every patient who receives a prescription painkiller under a tentative agreement reached Friday with the Kasich administration. The 11th-hour compromise between the…
It’s a change in nomenclature that’s come a bit out of the blue over the last few years. The forces appear to be aligning to gradually push the word “doctor”…
Implementation of an electronic health record-based prompt significantly increased hepatitis C screening rates among baby boomers in primary care. According to the researchers, HCV screening among adults born between 1945…
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) arrested 412 individuals, including 115 licensed medical professionals, across the country for alleged involvement in health care fraud schemes totaling around $1.3 billion in…
The final codes include 322 more changes than what was proposed by CMS in April's hospital IPPS rule. Starting Oct. 1, it will be possible to select a specific ICD-10-CM…
• CPT code 99495 (TCM with moderate medical decision complexity and a face-to-face visit within 14 days of discharge) • CPT code 99496 (TCM with high medical decision complexity and…
Know when to apply these secondary codes. Foreign bodies (FBs) entering through one of the three ENT-specific pathways is a relatively common occurrence. While these situations are found primarily with…
Emergency departments across the United States charge adult patients 340% more than what Medicare pays for services, but minorities and the uninsured receive the biggest bills, according to new research…
Downtime events in hospitals that shut down the functionality of the electronic health record can result in serious patient safety risks, according to a recently published study in the Journal…
Revisions include 322 more changes than CMS proposed in April The final updated ICD-10-CM codes for 2018, posted on the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) website, contain 360…
There’s a smart trend we’re starting to see that starts with a simple equation: E + D = O Where E=expertise, D=data, and O=optimization. Carriers are starting to discover that…
Medicare is a government-provided health insurance program designed to assist certain people with hospital care, medical costs, and other expenses. Qualifying beneficiaries are people who are 65 or older, those…
In the ICD-9 era, there were universally accepted benchmarks to measure coding professionals’ productivity. Now, more than 18 months after the ICD-10 implementation date, the challenge is to do the…
Medicare’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) has issued a sixteen-question survey to many ambulance service suppliers. The survey is focused on SNF patients, and specifically why the ambulance service has…