A new payment model by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) hopes to reduce low-acuity hospital visits by allowing ambulance care teams to provide care and transportation based on a patient’s health needs rather than rigid Medicare guidelines. READ MORE
Elderly patients with chronic conditions are increasingly ending up in emergency departments around the country. ACEP meets the challenge with their new Geriatric Emergency Department Accreditation Program. READ MORE
By Jan. 1, 2019, all Indiana healthcare providers who hold a controlled substance registration (CSR) must register with INSPECT, the state’s prescription drug monitoring program, and practitioners in hospital emergency departments and pain management clinics must begin querying INSPECT when prescribing opioids or benzodiazepines based on legislation passed during the 2018 General Assembly. READ MORE
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services recently published the final rule of the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule for 2019, including several policy changes relevant to emergency physicians. READ MORE
An 85 percent increase per member in emergency department spending between 2009 and 2015 was the result of hospitals coding and billing for a greater number of high severity cases, according to a 2017 Health Care Cost Institute study. But what does this upward shift in evaluation and management levels say about what’s happening in the ED? READ MORE
According to an August announcement, critical care services billed to Medicare are on the radar of the Office of Inspector General for review beginning in 2019. READ MORE
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently published the proposed Medicare Physician Fee Schedule for 2019. Here’s what emergency physicians need to know. READ MORE
According to recently clarified guidelines by Indiana Medicaid, all physician assistants must now enroll as Indiana Health Coverage Providers and can no longer be billed under a supervising physician’s NPI. This change, which brings billing for PAs into alignment with billing for other Mid-Level, or Non-Physician Providers, also reduces reimbursement for PA services to 75 percent of the Medicaid allowed amount. READ MORE
The claim some payers make that the ED is being overused for “non-urgent” conditions is being challenged by reports from the CDC released earlier this year which show that only 5.5 percent of all ED visits are considered non-urgent. READ MORE
The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission recently voted to recommend that payment rates for off-campus stand-alone EDs located within six miles of an on-campus hospital ED be cut by 30 percent. READ MORE
