Only one piece of the health reform puzzle remains, and it's in the Senate Finance Committee, which recently leaked a "draft framework" for health reform obtained by Part B News (see story, here).

Here's a rundown on all the major provisions in this draft that affect you and your peers:

Consult codes should be revised instead of eliminated, several medical societies said in comments on the proposed 2010 Physician Fee Schedule (PBN 8/24/09). The American College of Cardiology (ACC), for example weighed in that it "vehemently disagrees with the CMS proposal to eliminate payment for consultations and urges CMS to withdraw this portion of the proposed rule."

Call your carrier to verify a patient's coverage after an accident or other personal injury and mention to the carrier you might be looking for future conditional payments to help ensure you'll be paid during these sometimes tricky situations.

This chart shows how denial rates have changed by place of service from 2006 to 2007. The denial rate was calculated based on 12 imaging codes, which were chosen because they had high utilization across each service setting.

Get a faster response to claims from private payers by reminding them on every claim that you'll hold them to your state's prompt payment laws. That was just one popular tip shared at the first annual Physician Office Managers Association of America (POMAA) conference, held in Baltimore from Sept. 8 to Sept. 12.

Don't be caught off guard: IRS garnishments and adjustments to physician compensation are now more likely and that puts cash flow at risk, experts say. Starting in October, the IRS can garnish a physician's Medicare reimbursements for non-tax related reasons - because of child support, alimony or other outstanding business transactions - under the government's Federal Payment Levy Program. Physicians are already subject to a federal tax levy under the program.

CMS is readying to send out millions of dollars in bonus payments in October to providers who participated in the 2008 Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI) program. Bonuses are equal to 1.5% of eligible Medicare charges in 2008. Remember: Bonus payments for 2009 and 2010 have been increased to 2% of your Medicare charges
(PBN 7/20/09).

You've got even more reason to believe that the 21.5% physician pay cut set for 2010 will never materialize. A draft summary of the health reform bill being crafted in the Senate Finance Committee - obtained by Part B News from sources close to the process - delivers a 0.5% pay boost instead in 2010.

Greatly reduce your chance of getting an E/M service downcoded by watching how the phrase "additional workup" is used during your billing process, experts say. Opinions on exactly what qualifies as "additional workup" vary widely, says one compliance auditor. "Some people say it's as simple as, ‘if there are any additional diagnostic tests, that's additional workup.'"