Ambulance Inflation Factor to increase by 2.4% in 2012- Part I Determining the adjustment… The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has announced that the Ambulance Inflation Factor (AIF) for 2012 will be set at +2.4% beginning on January 1, 2012. The AIF is arrived at by combining two...
Recovery Audit Program Extended to Medicaid White House pushes to further curb waste, fraud and abuse… Last week the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released its final rule establishing the Medicaid Recovery Audit program. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) touted the program as a key...
Storm Related Transport Billing- Follow-up We contacted CMS... Following our September 9th Blog, Storm Related Transport Billing, Enhanced reached out to communicate with one of our key contacts within CMS. Our question to this CMS representative was to determine if it was anticipated that any waiver would be initiated on...
Storm Related Transport Billing Disaster Transports This week's torrential rains and record flooding here in Northeastern and Central Pennsylvania combined with last week's encounter with Hurricane Irene caused many of our clients to be pressed into completing spur-of-the-moment, evacuation-type ambulance transports. Although these transports are extremely critical to protect patient...
Will Paid Staffing Solve Our Problems? Not a week goes by... There isn't a week that goes by it seems that one or more of our clients doesn't call to inquire about numbers as they relate to pending decisions to add paid staff. It appears that the root of these...
Congress Passes Red Flag Program Clarification Act of 2010 The Health Care Industry, including ambulance services, scored a major victory recently in Congress. On November 30th, the Senate passe Senate Bill 3987 known as the "Red Flag Program Clarification Act of 2010." The bill essentially removes most, if not all,...
Congress Passes Medicare Ambulance Relief Extensions/Announcement of the 2011 AIF Ambulance Relief Extended for One More Year! We have learned that Congress, today (Thursday, December 9th), passed what's being referred to as the "physician fix extension." This extension, meant to cover shortfalls in Medicare payments to doctors that were anticipated...
Multifactor Productivity- The Dreaded Adjustment The MFP is coming... Never before, since the inception of the Ambulance Fee Schedule (AFS), has the AFS amounts decreased. Now we may have seen a zero increase, but never a decrease. Well all that's about to change thanks to three letters that will send...
Fractional Mileage Billing is on it's way! You may have heard... As some of you may already be aware, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced recently that they intend to publish new rules regarding billing for ambulance mileage. If the final rule on the matter is published...
Today's Billing Forecast- Audits On The Horizon! You’d have to be practically dead to not know what’s going on in America today regarding the healthcare debate. Our new President is leveraging his political capital and the very legacy of his Presidency early in his first term in order to champion...
