Medicare vs Medicaid- What’s the Difference? Interchangeable? It seems that often EMS people like to interchange the words Medicare and Medicaid. While similar in scope, the reality is these programs are two uniquely different government offerings. We thought it would be helpful to define the two programs and call attention to their similarities and differences. […]
Of Revalidations- Part II- Why So Much Personal Information? Here we go again… In this second part of our two-part series talking about the revalidation process, we focus on one of the biggest questions we receive here in our billing office… “Why do I have to provide my personal information? Let’s dig in and try […]
Other Methods of Transportation are Contraindicated Medical Necessity Defined We talk a lot about Medical Necessity in the ambulance billing office. Medical necessity and Reasonableness are key in determining whether or not an insurance payer is obligated to pay for ambulance transport, especially for Medicare and Medicaid patients. Title XVIII of the Social Security Act […]
The Payer Mix Barometer Fascination Remember those big old barometers that your father or grandfather had on his desk or hanging on the wall? It probably had the company logo of the business where he worked and was one of those milestone gifts one picks out of a catalog of “rewards” to recognize years of […]
SSNRI and What it Means for EMS Agency What is SSNRI SSNRI is the Social Security Number Removal Initiative. The Federal Government is mandating that all Social Security Numbers (SSNs) be removed from Medicare cards by April 2019. A new number called the MBI- Medicare Beneficiary Number will replace the long-standing SSN-based Health Insurance Claim […]
Compliance by Accident…is an Accident Waiting to Happen! Out of Sight…Out of Mind How many of you reading this blog, right now, have a compliance plan located somewhere in your office or somewhere in the station? You know what I mean, that big binder book with a lot of paper, plenty of words that seemingly […]
Why is S. 967 So Important to the Ambulance Industry? Part IV S.967- Part IV Today we land Part IV of our blog posts dedicated to helping us all understand the importance of Senate Bill 967 entitled the “Medicare Ambulance Access, Fraud Prevention and Reform Act of 2017.” In that opening post, we explained that […]
Why is S. 967 So Important to the Ambulance Industry? Part II S.967- Part II Last week, we opened this space with the first of four blog posts dedicated to helping us all understand the importance of Senate Bill 967 entitled the “Medicare Ambulance Access, Fraud Prevention and Reform Act of 2017.” In that opening […]
Freestanding Emergency Rooms and Ambulance Billing Training Week This week was a training week for our ambulance billing office. Each year we take a full day out of our normal routine, in addition to our ongoing training regimen, to host a representative from the National Academy of Ambulance Coding for a day of immersed training […]
Resources Where They’re Needed A Mini Rant Lately a lot of people are ranting about something. So we hope you’ll indulge us today as we offer up a bit of a mini rant. Those of us who live in the money game of ambulance reimbursement, be it EMS administrator, billing office or provider, have become […]
