A March 2015 report from the American Hospital Association, “Always There, Ready to Care: The 24/7 Role of America’s Hospitals,” looks at the increasingly important role of America’s emergency departments in providing healthcare to our country. READ MORE
Physician groups with more than 100 members were the first to be integrated into the Value-Based Payment Modifier program, and only 14 of the 1,010 groups required to participate actually are receiving a bonus, and only 11 are seeing a negative adjustment. READ MORE
In the last few weeks, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued two new proposed rules for the Medicare and Medicaid Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Programs to align and merge the “stages” of meaningful use requirements to reduce complexity and to simplify providers’ reporting. READ MORE
In January, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services established four new HCPCS modifiers (XE, XP, XS, XU) to define specific subsets of the -59 modifier, a modifier used to define a “Distinct Procedural Service.” But for now, CMS recommends not using them. Here’s why. READ MORE
Tuesday night, the U.S. Senate approved legislation that permanently repeals and replaces the flawed Medicare payment formula known as the Sustainable Growth Rate. The same bill, Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (HR 2), passed through the House two weeks ago, and President Obama has indicated he will sign it into law quickly. READ MORE
In early March, Marilyn Tavenner, outgoing administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, announced that CMS is ready for ICD-10. According to a new survey, though, apparently the rest of the industry is not. READ MORE
Insurance plans serving Medicare beneficiaries through the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ Medicare Advantage (MA) program will receive an increase in payments averaging 1.25 percent for fiscal year 2016, according to a CMS announcement earlier this week. READ MORE
Applicable manufacturers and group purchasing organizations had until April 3, 2015, to submit and attest to 2014 program year data about their financial relationships with physicians and hospitals and update 2013 program year data. Now it is the physicians’ and teaching hospitals’ turn. READ MORE
While Congress is in recess, the Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014 expired, theoretically rendering a 21 percent pay cut under the flawed Sustainable Growth Rate methodology for physicians who treat Medicare patients. Now what? READ MORE
One way to understand how patients who pay nothing affect your medical practice is to track your zero payment rates. READ MORE
