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HIPAA ‘mega-rule’ could mean hefty costs for providers forced to report more breaches

01/28/2013

Expect to report data breaches to HHS more often – and at a higher cost – to comply with provisions in the agency’s long-awaited HIPAA “mega-rule.” The Jan. 17-released mega-rule finalizes four proposed and interim final rules, tightening the agency’s stance on penalizing the compromise of patient protected health information (PHI).

New reassignment report, HTML printouts on PECOS make enrollment easier

01/28/2013

by: Karen Long

Practice administrators and credentialing specialists now can see which providers have reassigned their Medicare payments to the practice through a report in the Provider Enrollment, Chain and Ownership System (PECOS). The reassignment report shows provider names, national provider identifiers (NPIs), enrollment statuses, states where providers are enrolled, dates when revalidation notices were sent and revalidation statuses, CMS says in a Jan. 10 Medicare FFS Provider e-News.

4 ways to support your e-Rx exemption, avoid 1.5% pay cut as deadline nears

01/28/2013

by: Lauren C. Williams

You have only a couple of days left – until Jan. 31 – to submit an exemption for CMS’ e-prescribing (e-Rx) incentive program to avoid a 1.5% cut to your payments this year. Give your exemption request the best chances of getting accepted with the following advice CMS shared with Part B News:

Watch state laws for changes in how you talk about guns with patients

01/28/2013

by: Roy Edroso

President Barack Obama’s recent executive actions concerning doctors’ discussions of guns with patients have attracted a lot of attention, but experts tell Part B News that these are less likely to impact your practice than state laws, which may be more prescriptive.

AMA, others plead against meaningful use stage 3 deadline, push for delay

01/28/2013

by: Roy Edroso

Major medical groups have asked for a delay in the proposed 2016 launch for meaningful use stage 3 adoption, and two out of three experts believe CMS will accommodate them.

Benchmark of the Week: Top utilization changes by specialty, 2010-2011

01/28/2013

by: Lauren C. Williams

These two charts show the top 13 specialties with the greatest utilization growth and decline from 2010 to 2011. Note: The bars in the graphs represent the percent change in utilization or how many claims were billed over those two years and do not reflect total number of claims billed. Also, specialties that billed fewer than 1 million claims a year were excluded from the analysis.

Avoid denials with proper billing of depression screenings, AWVs

01/28/2013

by: Karen Long

Include depression screenings in your initial annual wellness visit (AWV) with a patient, but don’t bill G0444 ($18.37, par, non-facility) separately because it’s bundled into the visit.

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