Question: We have a nurse practitioner (NP) starting who is not yet credentialed but is shadowing our doctors for both her and them to get comfortable with her and the process of the office. One of our doctors is letting her do procedures while she is in the room with her and the NP is dictating the visit, but we will be billing under the doctor. Is this allowed?

Review your meaningful use data to make sure you haven’t misplaced reportable data such as patient smoking status, and get ready not only to attest but also to testify should Figliozzi and Company pick you for a meaningful use audit.

You can offer patients transportation to and from your office for appointments and more items for free or at a discount now that the HHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) has softened some of the harshness of the anti-kickback statute and the civil monetary penalties law in a series of rules and announcements released Dec. 7.

Don’t sleepwalk through your encounters with patients needing referrals for continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) treatment — the complex coverage requirements for CPAP might easily be leading to unintended denials.

Practices gearing up for the first year of the merit-based incentive payment system (MIPS) may want to take part in a CMS study assessing the segment of MIPS that’s brand new to reporting entities — the clinical practice improvement activities (CPIAs) performance category.

Question: When two surgeons are working a patient, when is modifier 62 (Two surgeons) appropriate and when is modifier 80 (Assistant surgeon) appropriate?