Medicare Prior Authorization Expansion- What Does It Mean for You? By Chuck Humphrey, B.A., CAC, CACO, CADS, EMT-B* The Time Has Come Unless you are Rip Van Winkle and you’ve been snoozing for a long, long winter’s nap, I’m hoping by now that you are aware that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) […]
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 […]
Musings of a Public Health Emergency- So Far By Chuck Humphrey, B.A., EMT-B, CAC, CADS* Rear-View Mirror Like me, I’m sure that you have taken some time to reflect on what you have learned over the last 15 months since COVID-19 crashed its way into all of our lives. Those of us who serve in […]
Dissecting the Certificate of Medical Necessity By Chuck Humphrey, B.A., EMT-B, CAC, CADS* The Non-Emergency Transport World If you live in the non-emergency ambulance transport world, then the words “medical necessity form” or the letters “PCS” are most familiar to you. A certificate of medical necessity is required to bill a claim to Medicare for […]
The Transfer of Power and the Implications for EMS The Election is Over: Now What? Election Day 2020 has come and gone. While the matter is not completely settled in all the races around the country, it seems that we know a few things about the balance of political power in Washington, DC. Leadership in […]
CMS Cost Data Collection Picture Becomes Clearer Puzzle Pieces Line Up! After several weeks of dissecting the upcoming Federal Cost Data Collection mandate, the puzzle pieces of this new requirement are starting to line up to create a picture of what’s to come. We continue to monitor the clarifications as shared by the Centers for […]
Medicare Ground Ambulance Data Collection Q&A Let’s Review We’ve shared in this space as well as our QMC EMS Board and Collar Podcast Series about the proposed rule announcing the Medicare Ground Ambulance Data Collection mandate which begins in 2020. Before we get into the nitty-gritty of what information will be requested to be reported, we […]
Hurricane Dorian Prompts CMS Emergency Efforts Breaking News Literally, as we contribute to this blog space, our fellow Americans in the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic States are experiencing the dramatic effects of the monster Hurricane Dorian. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has just issued Medicare Learning Network (MLN) Special Editions (SEs) 19017 (Puerto Rico), […]
Medicare Changes Proposed- Part II- Cost Data Collection Explained 2020 Proposed Rule Welcome to Part II of our blog series featuring the proposed changes to Part B Payment Policies and revisions to Payment Policies under the Physician Fee Schedule. It’s been three weeks since CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) released the proposed rule […]
Medicare Changes Proposed Last Week Big news hit the ambulance industry’s electronic inboxes last week, when the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released the calendar year 2020 Proposed Rule with revisions to Payment Policies under the Physician Fee Schedule including Other Changes to Part B Payment Policies. Two ambulance industry changes were embedded […]
