Sign on the Dotted Line! Properly Obtaining Patient Signatures in the Field. By Chuck Humphrey, B.A., EMT-B, CAC, CACO, CADS * Can you boast a 100% signature rate? In my 37 years of EMS field experience, I can boast a 100% patient signature success rate…NOT! It’s a joke that circulates between my EMS billing […]
ALERT – It’s Time to Extend the Medicare Extenders!!! By Chuck Humphrey, B.A., EMT-B, CAC, CACO, CADS, * Difficult Times It comes as no secret to any of us in the EMS world that we are in difficult financial times. Fuel prices are sparking a double whammy on top of inflation to create the […]
RSNAT Prior Authorizations and the PCS by Rebecca Illig, QMC Compliance Manager In 2014… In 2014 CMS initiated a Repetitive Scheduled Non-Emergency Ambulance Transportation (RSNAT) prior authorization demonstration program for certain states. These included South Carolina, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. The program was expanded in December of 2015 by CMS to include Delaware, the District […]
AIF Announced for the Calendar Year 2022 By Chuck Humphrey, B.A., EMT-B, CAC, CADS* Second Largest Increase Ever! The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced that the Ambulance Inflation Factor (AIF) for 2022 is 5.1%. The increase will be applied to the national Medicare Ambulance Fee Schedule with payments made on claims with a […]
Transported for HIGHER Level of Care By Katie Harrison and Chuck Humphrey, QMC Compliance Team If we had a dollar… Here in our QMC billing office, if we had a dollar for every time we have opened a patient care report (PCR) to read the documentation of an ambulance transport from one facility to another […]
It’s Time to Pay Up! Medicare Accelerated Payment Recoupment to Begin A Whole Year! It’s hard to believe it’s been a whole year since we first were introduced to the terms COVID-19 and the word Pandemic became part of our everyday dialogue. But here we are, one-year later, and the time has come to repay […]
AIF Announced for Calendar Year 2021 Christmas-like Anticipation Do you remember what it was like when you were a kid and Christmas was right around the corner? You probably couldn’t wait for the big day when Santa would bring you that awesome new bicycle, video game or Barbie doll, right? Well, if you’re an ambulance […]
Peeling Back the Layers of the Cost Data Collection Instrument… Section 5: Service Volume Part Two We continue our series of blog posts to dissect the Cost Data Reporting mandate and the online reporting instrument that CMS will use to collect the data. Our last blog post, focused on Section 4: Emergency Response Time Reporting. […]
Peeling Back the Layers of the Cost Data Collection Instrument… Section 4: Emergency Response Time Reporting Part One By now you are well aware that the Ground Ambulance Cost Data Reporting mandate has begun. It’s a law. We must do it. It’s time to roll up our sleeves and get to work, especially if your […]
2018 Ambulance Payment Data Released AAA Capsule Thanks to the American Ambulance Association’s efforts to keep all of us in the ambulance industry informed the Association has compiled and released the ambulance 2018 Medicare Payment Data Report to all AAA members. The report was compiled and posted using payment data derived from the “Early Edition” […]
