Tag Archives: providers

What We’re Reading – How to Market Your Health Care Practice with an Email Newsletter

A great way to keep your patients up-to-date with the ever changing healthcare issues, trends & tips is by generating a newsletter. The fastest and least expensive method for circulating a newsletter is to send it via email; this saves … Read Full Post

Tagged brand awareness, changing technology, email listing, email newsletter, healthcare marketing, home health agencies, marketing plans, newsletter, patients, providers, referring providers |

The Basics of HIPAA (Part 2)

Monday, we began a discussion about the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and reviewed two of its early provisions: Portability and Medicare Program Integrity. Today, let’s review the most important aspect of HIPAA for the majority of providers. … Read Full Post

Tagged administrative simplification, health insurance portability and accountability act, health records, hipaa, home health agencies, insurance payor, medical practice, practice management, providers, recredentialed |

CMS Provides Guidance on 5010 Discretionary Enforcement Period for Medicare Fee for Service

Medicare Fee-for-Service (FFS) issued an announcement on December 14th regarding its plan for the 90 Day Discretionary Enforcement Period for non-compliant HIPAA covered entities. According to that announcement, CMS provided a 90 day discretionary period for compliance with planned January … Read Full Post

Tagged 4010 claims, 5010, 90 day discretionary period, cms, compliance plan, hipaa, medicare, medicare fee-for-service, medicare ffs, providers, submitters |

5010 – Much Ado about Nothing?

It seems like not a day goes by in healthcare without some gloomy prediction about the changes lurking on the horizon. The one causing the most stir at the moment is 5010. To understand “5010,” we first need to take … Read Full Post

Tagged 4010, 5010, 5010 transactions, cms, electronic claims, hipaa, icd-10 implementation, icd-10 transition, pecos, providers, version 5010 |

Medicare Billing for Seasonal Flu Vaccines

As you know, Medicare began covering annual influenza immunizations in 1993 for all Medicare beneficiaries. Medicare covers both the costs of the vaccine and its administration by recognized providers. There is no coinsurance or co-payment applied to this benefit, and … Read Full Post

Tagged annual influenza immunizations, cpt codes, flu shots, medicare beneficiary, medicare billing, medicare reimbursements, providers, seasonal influenza vaccine |

What We’re Reading – Medical identity theft is a growing problem

Nothing seems to be off limits these days. Not only are people stealing identities for financial gain, but also for medical purposes. In this article, Jim Koenig, director & leader of PwC’s identity theft practice said, “Medical identity theft is … Read Full Post

Tagged fraud, healthcare fraud, insurance company, medical identity theft, patients, providers, reimbursement |

How should I prepare for ICD-10?

From time to time, we hear about consultants scaring the daylights out of providers with horror stories about the transition to ICD-10. We disagree with that approach, although it’s important to have a healthy respect for any system that – … Read Full Post

Tagged aapc, diagnosis codes, documentation, healthcare consultants, icd-10, icd-10 conversion, icd-10-cm, icd-9, icd-9-cm, physician, providers |

What We’re Reading – Investigation Finds Drug Abusers Exploiting Medicare Benefit

An investigation in 2008, by the Government of Accountability Office, found approximately 170,000 Medicare recipients with suspicious prescription-use patterns. The study identified 14 frequently abused medications and found that patients were “doctor shopping” in order to obtain multiple prescriptions for … Read Full Post

Tagged drug abuse, exploiting medicare benefit, medicare, medicare prescription drug program, medicare recipients, providers |

The Dysfunctional Medical Practice – Part IV of a Five Part Series

In Part IV of this five-part series, we tackle the last big issue of our dysfunctional medical practice revealed last week: the majority of calls to our client’s practice were repeated requests for prescriptions, referrals or test results. Issue #4: … Read Full Post

Tagged dysfunctional medical practice, medical records department, patient test results, patients aren't always patient, providers |