The Drama of Documenting Trauma Making you sweat? Do traumatic incidents make you sweat? Probably. Does documenting traumatic incidents make you sweat more? Most likely. The sheer amount of “stuff” that surrounds our trauma calls many times overwhelms us. The very nature of the run- auto crashes, industrial accidents, severe falls with complications or the […]
Defining EMS for our Communities-Facility Education Last Week… In this space last week, we advocated stepping out to educate our communities about EMS. We focused primarily on where to educate people on the subject of when it’s appropriate (and not appropriate) to call 9-1-1 in light of medical necessity and the need for EMS. Our […]
Novitas Announces Revalidation Mailing for Jurisdiction H Medicare Novitas Solutions Inc, Part A/B Medicare Administrative Contractor (MAC) for Jurisdiction H including the States of Arkansas, Colorado, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas announced the mailing of 18,000 revalidation notices to Medicare providers and suppliers. This follows a similar project conducted by Novitas Solutions for […]
Palmetto GBA Releases Results of Second Quarter Review Emergency and Non-Emergency Palmetto GBA, the Medicare Administrative Contractor (MAC) for Railroad Medicare, nationwide, and Part A/B MAC for the States of West Virginia, Virginia, North and South Carolina has released the results of a widespread review of Advanced Life Support ambulance services which was conducted during […]
Preparing for Dialysis Transport Payment Reductions Last Week In our last blog we provided information regarding the announced 10% payment reduction that is being put in place by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on all BLS Non-Emergency transports to and from dialysis treatments for patients diagnosed with End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD). […]
Payment Reductions Loom for Dialysis Transports Section 637 Remember “Section 637.” This is the section of the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 that will require the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to reduce Medicare payments for BLS Non-Emergency ambulance transports nationwide by 10% beginning on October 1, 2013. Non-Emergency, Basic Life Support […]
Proposed Rule Tightens the Screw for Ambulance Feeling Beat Up? CMS published a proposed rule this week which intends to bolster fraud prevention and also limit certain Medicare privileges we’ve grown accustomed to in the ambulance industry. CMS is inviting comments on the proposal now through June 28, 2013. The American Ambulance Association has committed […]
Sequestration Update It Happened… Our last blog warned of the possibility that the “Sequester” was going to hit. If you missed that blog, we provided you with information about the government sequester which, at that point, was still being debated in a standoff between Congress and The White House. Well, March came in like a […]
Sequester Could Have Negative Impact on Ambulance Medicare Payments In the News… Congress and President Obama are in the news again over another game of brinksmanship just two months after narrowly avoiding the drop over the “fiscal cliff.” This time the sequestration process threatens to cut Medicare reimbursements. What is Sequestration? For many years there […]
PCS — Who Can Sign? Signature Focus In our last blog post we visited new rules surrounding repetitive transports and the execution of the Physicians Certification Statement (PCS). This post will primarily focus on how to insure the person signing is correct for the PCS you have obtained. Requirement… Remember Medicare requires that a PCS […]
