Eliminate the guesswork in determining the place of service (POS) when your physician provides a consult service (99241-99245) in a hospital emergency room by looking at the patient's status, experts say. The correct POS is not going to be the same POS every time.

You'll need to attach one of three new modifiers when filing claims for a "never event" surgery. You still won't get paid for never event claims because of medical necessity (PBN 6/22/09). But the modifier you use sends a signal to your carrier to place the patient and the date of service for the surgical error on a list, CMS says.

Get paid in full more often by accepting credit cards and encouraging patients to use them, experts say. The main reasons for not accepting credit cards are the transaction fees, or when your records show most of your patients pay with cash or checks.

Almost one out of every five practices doesn't take credit cards (PBN 7/6/09). "The reason we decided not to do it ... is because most of our patients are elderly and don't use credit cards," says Desiree Baylin, practice manager at Associates in Adult Medicine, an internal medicine practice in York, Pa.

Recovery Audit Contractors (RACs) have come a long way. Since August, every RAC has released targets (PBN 8/10/09). Diversified Collection Services (DCS) - the RAC for Region A - became the last RAC to release target issues on Sept 21.

Your practice could see lowered prices on everything from medical equipment and practice management software to drugs and basic supplies by joining a health care group purchasing organization (GPO).

Use these five strategies to see if a group purchasing organization (GPO) is worth it for your practice and, if so, how to get the best deal on a membership (see story).

The reasons for resubmitting a denied claim vary by specialty, but here's four common events that lead to resubmitting.

The AMA announced it has developed new CPT codes for administering the H1N1 influenza vaccine to your patients. But don't start using these codes for swine flu shots. CMS currently pays only for its two G-codes for swine flu related services.