This chart compares nine specialties with some of the highest Medicare utilization, to see how their billing breaks down by code category. The data lets you see at a glance where a specialty's utilization comes from, whether it's E/M services (99201-99499), imaging and radiology (70000-79999), lab tests (80000-89999), medicine and therapy (90281-98962) or surgery and anesthesia (00100-69990). All statistics are based on CMS claims data from 2008, the latest available.

The prize of $44,000 per physician for meeting meaningful use via Medicare's Electronic Health Record (EHR) incentive program is more accessible than you might think. Physicians who can't meet any clinical quality measures - because none are relevant to their practices - are still eligible for the full EHR bonus, assuming they meet all other requirements and get started by the cutoff date of Oct. 1, 2012.

CMS is directing your Medicare Administrative Contractor to add seven remittance advice remark codes (RARC) to its list of codes detailing payment adjustments, appeal rights and other claims information.

You have another option to earn a bonus through CMS's Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI) in 2011, but be prepared to act fast if you're interested. CMS is proposing to open its group reporting option to physician practices with less than 200 providers next year, but will limit the number of groups that can participate in the group reporting option for 2011.

CMS is planning to offer your practice an extra bonus payment next year through another quality initiative. Incentives will equal 0.5% of your Medicare charges from 2011 through 2014 - yielding anywhere from an extra couple hundred to thousands of dollars per provider each year.

Take extra caution when reviewing a patient's new health coverage information when it doesn't look familiar - instances of patients buying fake health insurance are on the rise, sticking your patients and potentially your practice with big bills that will be difficult or impossible to collect.

Adopting CMS's meaningful use standards may turn out to be worth even more than $44,000 in incentives promised by the agency. Private payers are lining up to base their own incentives on the CMS meaningful use rules, too. "It would make no sense for us to make our own standards," says one private payer.