The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently released a proposal to increase Medicare payments to hospitals for the care that they provide on an outpatient basis. The new proposal provides an increase in hospital outpatient payments by 2.1% in the...
Implications of Medicare Payment Rise for Outpatient Care
When the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released prospective Medicare payment rules for 2015 recently, they proposed a 2% increase in outpatient visit reimbursements for hospitals and a 1.2% hike for ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs). As the...
Some Facts about Ebola Virus – Symptoms, Diagnosis and Treatment
Ebola hemorrhagic fever, identified by ICD-10 diagnostic code A98.4 has taken toll of around 1,000 people. It needs to be effectively managed to avoid an outbreak of epidemic proportions. Some Facts about Ebola Virus – Symptoms, Diagnosis and Treatment Ebola is...
EHRs Not Changing Medical Billing Practices – Study Finds
The main objective behind the federal government's initiative to provide incentives to push hospitals and physicians to use electronic health records (EHR) was to improve efficiency and patient safety thereby reducing total healthcare costs. Inappropriate use of the...
US Medicaid Enrollment Reaches 6.7 Million
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) aims to expand the health insurance coverage to millions of Americans through a combination of public programs and private-sector health insurance expansions. A recent report reveals that the new enrollments in Obamacare's Medicaid...
Impact of New Gastroenterology Procedure Coding Changes
When the American Medical Association (AMA) released the 2014 Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) code set, 25 percent of all changes constituted those made to the gastroenterology codes. The changes include 26 new codes, 41...
New Study Findings on EHR Switching Trends
Electronic health record (EHR) adoption rate continues to rise in the United States with many hospitals and physician practices progressing strongly towards meaningful use and the implementation of this system. Even with the growing rates of implementation, clinician...
ICD-10 Implementation Delay – Varied Responses from Providers
The healthcare industry’s response to the postponement of ICD-10 standard for medical diagnosis and billing codes to October 1, 2015 ranges from relief to resentment. While those healthcare providers who were not fully prepared for the radical format transition are...
CMS Clarifies “Incident to” Relating to Pharmacist Services
According to the communication between the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), Physicians may bill for pharmacist services as part of the "incident to" services provided to Medicare patients. Medical...
ACA Improves Young Adults’ Access to Mental Health Care
Lack of access to mental health care has been a problem among young adults in the U.S. In addition to the social stigma that surrounds mental health disorders, lack of insurance coverage and limitation to mental health care services are among the major reasons for...