Summary: Do some states or regions tend to bill more imaging services to Medicare than others? This chart looks at state-level utilization of common imaging services based on the latest CMS claims data, from 2008. To account for differences in state populations, the chart measures number of imaging services billed per single enrollee.

Starting in 2011, CMS will waive the copay for the scantly utilized abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) screening, removing an obstacle to the service and, in the process, potentially creating a new revenue opportunity for your practice. However, the service isn't open to everyone and you must meet requirements to bill the service G0389 (ultrasound exam, AAA screen, $108.78).

The swine flu/H1N1 scare is over and you won't be separately billing for swine flu during the 2010-2011 flu season. The seasonal flu vaccines you administer to your patients this flu season will have strains of the H1N1 virus included. "There is no longer a pandemic but it's in there," says Cynthia Hughes, CPC, the American Academy of Family Physicians' (AAFP) coding and compliance specialist.

Uninsured and underinsured patients are flocking to discount health plan programs to obtain medical services at a discount. These programs, known as discount medical card programs or referral plans, aren't illegal. But they're not actual insurance plans and can create problems for you when patients have an inflated sense of their own coverage.

You and your peers electronically prescribing controlled substances to patients can count these encounters toward earning a bonus from CMS's Electronic Prescribing (e-prescribing) Incentive Program, CMS says. The encounters also will count toward thwarting e-prescribing penalties in future years.

First of a two-part series. You must use a "certified" electronic health record (EHR) system for a shot at up to $44,000 in per-provider federal bonuses, but that doesn't mean you have to sink a massive upfront sum into a new, off-the-shelf package, experts say.

Is Medicare reimbursing for the new Fluzone vaccine? What are the applicable CPT codes?

Low-level E/M codes are denied much more often than level 3 E/M codes, years of CMS claims data have shown. High-level E/M codes are a mixed bag; level 4 codes are denied as often as level 3 codes, on average, but level 5 codes are denied more often than both. How do these E/M denials break down by state and geographic region?

Your peers have fewer cash flow problems with Medicare's enrollment process compared to those of private payers, according to an unscientific Part B News reader survey. Medicare does a much better job paying retroactively to the effective date on providers' enrollment applications, most likely because of its uniform rule on retroactive billing.

You would have the option of providing transcatheter occlusion and placement of an intravascular stent procedures at ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) under a CMS proposed rule. CMS is planning to add transcatheter procedures 37204-37206 to the list of new ASC covered surgical procedures for 2011, according to Proposed Changes to the ASC Payment System and 2011 Payment Rates. CMS also wants to add 37210 (laser enuclearion of prostate, $3,452.41) and 50593 (uterine fibroid emolization, $4,590.31).