One of your biggest challenges after switching to an electronic health records (EHR) system is translating everyday paper-based routines to an EHR-compatible process. Save your practice time and money with advanced planning to head-off problems that hamper workflow, experts say.

Stack your appeal letters with claim-specific clinical data and input from your physicians for the best shot at collecting on denied claims. Treat your appeals process as if you were presenting your case in court, by showing the payer all the evidence in your favor upfront, says Joan Gilhooly, CPC, president of Medical Business Resources in Lorain, Ohio. 

While most practices said it was too soon to tell, of those willing to make an observation, the majority say fewer patients have been able to pay deductibles in 2012 than last year, based on 288 responses to a Part B News subscriber survey taken between Jan. 5 and Jan. 9. Practices strategize to collect unpaid deductibles mostly by sending billing letters or statements (88%) and offering a patient payment plan (79%), according to the survey.

Will Medicare reimburse E/M codes for new patients,99201-99205,or established patients, 99211-99215, along with 96372(therapeutic, prophylactic, or diagnostic injection) on the same day or must modifier 25(separate, significant E/M, same physician/day) be attached?

Don’t get too worked up over meeting meaningful use stage 1’s core measure 14 for Electronic Health Records (EHR) system encryption transmission. You’re only required to complete a single test with another practice, and even a failed test meets the CMS standard.

You will see a wave of surgery code pair changes in 2012’s first batch of revisions to the Correct Coding Initiative (CCI) edits, version 18.0, which took effect Jan. 1. There are a total of 21,727 changes, nearly 10 times the 2,271 changes from version 17.3 of 2011’s fourth quarter, an exclusive Part B News analysis shows.

Heard the one about the three-month-old baby that failed her family physician’s “oriented x3” test? That is, her physician’s computer-generated exam notes showed the newborn was unable to state her name or answer other key questions doctors generally use to test mental acuity in elderly patients.

You must have a plan for handling limited English proficiency (LEP) patients because you’re responsible for providing and paying for translation services to patients, who do not speak, read or write English well. Preparing for LEP patients as well as those with special needs, such as blindness, is something that many practices don’t plan for, says Ken Hertz, principal consultant with the MGMA Healthcare Consulting Group in Alexandria, La.

 CMS holding all 2012 claims for 10 days. You will not get paid for claims submitted after Jan. 1 until Jan. 18 at the latest. CMS is holding all claims with a date of service of Jan. 1 or later for up to 10 business days in order to test and implement the 2012 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule, CMS announced in an MLN Matters article.

This is a table reflecting some of the major changes from selected chapters that were made to the CCI policy manual, version17.3. TIP: You can download the full three-page analysis by clicking the "Download File" link at the top of the story.