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 […]
On Drop Downs and Written Narratives- Connecting the Data in our PCRs “Paint a Picture” We read a lot of communication that point to expectations. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), State agencies and even Commercial Insurance payers bombard our billing office with all kind of communication about what they expect to be […]
New York State Braces for Loss of Reimbursement April 1st When New York Governor Andrew Cuomo presents his administration’s 2019 budget on April 1st, ambulance providers in the Empire State stand to experience a significant loss in reimbursement dollars at a time when making ends meet is as difficult as ever. Cuomo is recommending that […]
Documenting Cardiac Arrests for Billing Challenging Scenarios We’re sure that you’ll agree with us that patient cardiac arrests present the most challenging of scenarios EMS providers encounter in the field. Documenting arrest scenarios also presents challenges following the run. Once we have had time to step back and think about the event, that’s when we […]
CMS Debuts “What’s Covered” App eMedicare Goes Mobile This week Medicare released its latest eMedicare tool and it’s one any person can use on their mobile device. The “What’s Covered” app was launched on January 28th. In a press release posted to CMS.gov and introduced via e-mail to CMS listserv recipients, the app was introduced […]
Shutdown and ACA- What’s Next and How Will They Affect the EMS Bottom Line? History By now, most likely you have heard that the United States Government is experiencing a partial shutdown. The Trump Administration and Congress reached a stalemate just before the Congressional Christmas break stemming from a disagreement over funding for a southern […]
Take Compliance Seriously- Or…It Will Cost You! In the News Recently, some scary EMS articles have been published. Here are some headlines… Fla. Ambulance company to pay 1.2M in federal whistle-blower lawsuit <Company name redacted> settles Medicare fraud suite for 12.7M Ambulance company owner sentenced to prison for fraud Feds crack down on Medicare ambulance […]
Ambulance Industry Legislation Update In this space… Over a few month we reported in this space about legislation in several States that had the potential to impact the ambulance industry in a big way. Since those posts, there have been some positive developments on a few fronts. Pennsylvania Legislation Passes The new State budget passed […]
