The recent settlement agreement between the HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and the now-shuttered medical records storage company FileFax Inc. is a good reminder that providers and business associates need to comply with HIPAA and protect PHI not only when they possess or store it but also when they transmit it to each other.

Question: A nurse practitioner told a patient to return after an office visit if his chest pain worsened, and the provider ordered a nuclear stress test to take place the next day. Can my provider count the plan for the stress test in the medical decision-making for the previous encounter, even if the diagnosis isn’t made until eight days after the face-to-face encounter?

Question: All of a sudden, I am getting denials from everyone for billing 99214-25 with 94664 (Demonstration and/or evaluation of patient utilization of an aerosol generator, nebulizer, metered dose inhaler or IPPB device). Guidelines say billing the codes together is appropriate unless there is a recent change. Is anyone else seeing denials? Before this month, my claims were going through fine.

Question: What do you know about payments for Zilretta injections? Anything specific that we need to know about billing?

Experts say it’s still a tricky and underutilized service, but the numbers behind the annual wellness visit (AWV) wouldn’t make you think so

If you think the amount of red tape you have to cut through is getting worse, you’re not alone. Nearly nine out of 10 medical practices report that regulatory burden has increased over the past year, and experts say that the era of high-hassle may very well be the new normal.

Some simple preparation in anticipation of patient requests for clinical trial information can make them feel cared for and less frightened, and more likely to take an active role in their own treatment.