Pediatric Patient Pitfalls That Lump in your Throat We don’t know about you, but each and every time we’re dispatched to a pediatric emergency, there’s just this lump that forms in the throat. Somehow, the gravity of having a young life with a long future ahead of them resting in our hands tends to make […]
Defining EMS for our Communities “Foot Pain” “County 9-1-1 dispatching EMS Station 90 for unknown medical emergency, female patient with foot pain. Ambulance 91 is due at 2040 hours.” That’s your scenario as it cracks through the Minitor. “Foot pain?” You ask yourself. Really? Someone actually called 9-1-1 to request an ambulance for foot pain? […]
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 […]
Uncovering Medicaid—The Other Entitlement Not Just Medicare For as long as we’ve been around the ambulance billing scene, everyone has hung on every word that comes from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) pertaining to Medicare. But note the name of the agency . . . it not only contains the word “Medicare” […]
The Crystal Ball— Obamacare and EMS The Beginning of Something Different Over the past year or so, we’ve received questions from our clients about the potential effect of “Obamacare” on the future of Emergency Medical Services in the United States. Frankly, it’s impossible to provide concrete answers to these questions right now, because no one […]
EMS Patient Care Report Writing | Documentation 101 | Part 10 – Miscellaneous Welcome to Part 10, the final installment in our twelve-week continuing blog series “EMS Patient Care Reporting Writing/Documentation 101”. Part 1: EMS Patient Care Report Writing Part 2: Field Notes Part 3: Patient Demographics Part 4a: Nature of Dispatch – Emergency vs. […]
EMS Patient Care Report Writing | Documentation 101 | Part 9 – Medical Necessity Welcome to Part 9 in our continuing blog series “EMS Patient Care Reporting Writing/Documentation 101”. Part 1: EMS Patient Care Report Writing Part 2: Field Notes Part 3: Patient Demographics Part 4a: Nature of Dispatch – Emergency vs. Non-Emergency Part 4b: […]
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 part of the Obama Administration’s […]
