You might be required to update your Notice of Privacy Practices for the first time in years. Proposed changes to HIPAA regulations would require you to add new language to the HIPAA notice you give to patients.

As you shop for electronic health record (EHR) systems, get ready for different levels of certification. Two groups - the non-profit Certification Commission for Health Information Technology (CCHIT) and the for-profit Drummond Group Inc. - have won CMS approval to certify EHR systems for meeting meaningful use.

There are tens of millions of dollars in reimbursements now available to physicians who provide at least three minutes of tobacco cessation counseling to patients. Your practice will be paid for cessation services (99406 and 99407) for any Medicare patient who smokes or uses tobacco, CMS states in an Aug. 25 coverage decision memo. Previously, CMS would only cover the service when the patient had a disease related to his tobacco use, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Enrollment problems resulting in delays are still a big source of lost revenue rightfully earned, Part B News has learned. Significant majorities of your peers report lengthy cash flow disruptions and lost dollars, whether they're dealing with private payers or Medicare contractors (see survey results).

This week's question is answered by Regan Bode, CPC, CPC-H, CPMA, CEMC, ACS-EM, content manager for DecisionHealth and consultant for DecisionHealth Professional Services.

Q. Can I bill Medicare for unused drugs I have to throw away for safety reasons? We will sometimes inject a patient with a drug, but the patient doesn't need the entire amount in the vial and it is unsafe to store and reuse once opened.

Summary: Do certain specialties do a lot worse on getting paid for high-level E/M codes? This analysis takes a shot at the question by looking at the difference in the denial rate for level 3 E/M codes and level 5 E/M codes. Remember: Level 3 E/Ms are the single most commonly billed Medicare service, according to years of CMS claims data (PBN 10/12/09). NOTE: These specialties were chosen for having high annual Medicare utilization, and to ensure a diverse range of practices would be represented.

There's still no timeframe for when CMS will reprocess your 2010 claims with fee schedule corrections called for in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA, PBN 8/9/10). CMS needs to reprocess hundreds of millions of claims, says William Rogers, MD, director of CMS's Physician Regulatory Issues Team (PRIT).

Medical associations strongly oppose CMS's methodology to calculate 2012 penalties you would face for failing to adopt electronic prescribing. CMS plans to use claims filed during the first six months of 2011 to determine if your 2012 claims will be paid at a reduced rate (PBN 7/26/10). You and your peers must report that you e-prescribed at least 10 times in order to avoid a 1% payment decrease, CMS says in the proposed 2011 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule.

You could get an automatic bonus payment worth 10% of your Medicare allowed charges for primary care services next year. CMS outlines the payment in its proposed 2011 Physician Fee Schedule (PFS), and while the rule is proposed, the agency must start the payments next year, under the health reform law. The bonus would be split into quarterly payments, beginning in January. Remember: The 10% isn't 10% of all your Medicare allowed charges.

Get your hands on new documents on compliance with Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requirements at your practice from the Department of Justice (DOJ). The guidance will help you fulfill your responsibilities to treat patients with disabilities. Your legal requirement to provide access and comparable treatment to the disabled is not new, but many physicians are not providing adequate access, DOJ officials say.