Practice management, team development, and multidisciplinary care.
390 articles · Page 18 of 20
President Obama signed legislation this month that will permanently change how Medicare pays doctors, a rare bipartisan achievement by Democrats and Republicans that will end years of short-term fixes.
Chiropractic documentation education, new quality-reporting incentives included in measure
On April 1, 2015, the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) was updated using the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) methodology as required by current law. The SGR methodology required a 21% decrease in all MPFS payments beginning April 1, 2015. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) took steps to limit the impact on Medicare providers and beneficiaries by holding claims paid under the MPFS with dates of service on and after April 1, 2015. In the absence of additional legislation to avert the negative update, CMS must update payment systems to comply with the law, and implement the negative update.
The CMS Innovation Center has announced a new ACO model: the Next Generation Accountable Care Organization (ACO) Model of payment and care delivery, which they state “offers a new opportunity in accountable care—one that sets predictable financial targets, enables providers and beneficiaries greater opportunities to coordinate care, and aims to attain the highest quality standards of care.” The ACOs in the Next Generation ACO Model will take on greater performance risk than ACOs in current models, while also potentially sharing in a greater portion of savings.
The Supreme Court took up the case after Idaho residential providers for disabled patients sued state officials over the state’s failure to implement new, higher rates, for which the Legislature didn’t provide sufficient funding. A federal district court ruled that Idaho’s rates weren’t in line with the federal law’s requirements that states “assure that payments are consistent with efficiency, economy and quality of care and are sufficient to enlist enough providers” to ensure adequate access to care. That was upheld by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which also sided with the providers.
Lawmakers have also used the legislation to take aim at obstacles to realizing the benefits of IT in healthcare, particularly the lack of interoperability, or data-sharing, between electronic health records.
Congress needs to enact legislation that will permanently repeal the flawed Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula before the March 31, 2015 deadline. Medicare Part B providers of all types, including doctors of chiropractic, will face devastating cuts to the payment rates if action is not taken. These payment cuts will also impact patients by threatening their ability to access the care that they need from the provider type of their choosing.
The Council on Chiropractic Guidelines and Practice Parameters has updated their guideline so it can be placed on the National Guidelines Clearinghouse site.
New EHR Attestation Deadline for Medicare Eligible Professionals: March 20, 2015 . Eligible professionals now have until 11:59 pm ET on March 20, 2015 , to attest to meaningful use for the Medicare Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Program 2014 reporting year. CMS extended the deadline to allow providers extra time to submit their meaningful use data. CMS continues to urge providers to begin attesting for 2014 as soon as they can.
As evidence of the need for plans, the AMA-led group pointed to last month’s release of mixed results from a first round of so-called end-to-end testing of the Medicare claims flow.
CMS recently published an update regarding the time frame for responding to pre-payment review Additional Documentation Requests (ADRs). Effective April 1, 2015 , when a provider receives a pre-payment review ADR from a Medicare Administrative Contractor (MAC) or Zone Program Integrity Contractor (ZPIC), the provider will now have 45 calendar days to respond and supply the requested documentation. If the provider does not respond by day 46 the associated claims will be denied. This is a positive change to the response time frame – The current regulations (Section 3.2.3.2 (A) of the Medicare Program Integrity Manual), which will remain in effect until March 31, 2015 , require providers to respond within 30 calendar days.
Eligible professionals now have until 11:59 pm ET on March 20, 2015 , to attest to meaningful use for the Medicare Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Program 2014 reporting year.
“No more delays in the transition to ICD-10,” added Rep. Kathy Castor (D-Fla.).
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CAREER/VENDOR FAIR MARCH 5 – We’re excited to kick off the Spring 2015 Career & Networking Fair hosted by the Alumni Relations office. If you are currently looking for a chiropractor to join your team or would just like to meet our students and network with your future colleagues, please consider joining us. We also invite vendors to participate. Our main goal is to help our student’s network, stay connected with other chiropractic doctors and get hired! Click on the link below for more information.
Q: Who is a Business Associate and what do we do if they refuse to sign the BAA (Business Associate Agreement)?
Beginning January 1, 2015 and beyond the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is required to apply negative payment adjustments to the fee schedule amounts for those providers that have not successfully/satisfactorily participated in Medicare’s Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS). Doctors of chiropractic can avoid the 2 percent payment deduction to their 2017 Medicare reimbursement by successfully and satisfactorily reporting PQRS measures for Pain Assessment and Follow-Up (Measure #131) and Functional Outcome Assessment (Measure #182) during the 2015 reporting period (Jan. 1 – Dec. 31, 2015).
CMS Administrator Marilyn Tavenner today announced new rules that strengthen oversight of Medicare providers and protect taxpayer dollars from bad actors. These new safeguards are designed to prevent physicians and other providers with unpaid debt from re-entering Medicare, remove providers with patterns or practices of abusive billing, and implement other provisions to help save more than $327 million annually.
