In This Issue:

• Preventive Services: How Practices Can Benefit from the Mandate
• Optimizing Office Visits for Preventive Services
• ICD-10 Training Camp: A Closer Look at the New Guys in Town
• Best Practices: A Benchmark Practice Review Can Help You Evaluate Your Practice’s Health
• 5 Patient Service Benefits from an EHR
• MGMA Requests Extension of 5010 Enforcement Delay, Cites Problems Encountered by Physician Practices

Latest from Kareo

Preventive Services: How Practices Can Benefit from the Mandate

By Betsy Nicoletti, M.S., CPC

No co-pay and no deductible for preventive services? Great news!  Not all of your patients will have this coverage, of course, but one of the regulations in the health care reform bill mandated that groups which renew their coverage after September 2010 include first dollar coverage for preventive services that have an A or B rating from the US Preventive Task Force.  How can physician practices benefit from this?   Read More

Optimizing Office Visits for Preventive Services

Thursday, February 23, 2012
1:00 PM EST/10:00 AM PST
Speaker: Betsy Nicoletti, M.S., CPC

Preventive services are becoming more important to medical practices’ profitability, especially with Medicare coverage of the Annual Wellness Visit. Does your practice know how to best manage preventive services to maximize revenue appropriately?

This webinar will describe key strategies including:
• The importance of benefit verification prior to services
• Using modifier 33 to prevent denials and patient co-pays for covered preventive services
• Coding preventive services for commercial patients and Medicare patients
• Reporting other services provided at an annual exam
• And much more

Register Now!

ICD-10 Training Camp: A Closer Look at the New Guys in Town

By Nancy Maguire, ACS, PCS, FCS, HCS-D, CRT

I guess people are nervous about ICD-10 codes because the thought of alphanumeric codes and 7 characters is a far cry from ICD-9 numerical three to five digit codes.  Actually, there is a lot more to these codes.  Detailed description of body parts will require detailed documentation by the provider.  For example... Read More

Best Practices: A Benchmark Practice Review Can Help You Evaluate Your Practice’s Health

By Laurie Morgan

In a tough economy, with rising costs and increasing patient responsibility for payments, you might find your practice is less profitable than it was even a few years ago. But, even if profits are holding steady, it’s a good idea to compare your practice against top performers to identify any weak spots. Benchmarks are the tool that helps you do it... Read More

5 Patient Service Benefits from an EHR

By Ron Sterling

One of the key challenges in EHR selection and implementation is accommodating and managing patient service needs.  In many cases, practices focus on the charting of patient visits by the doctor, but do not adequately consider the follow-through on patient issues... Read More

MGMA Requests Extension of 5010 Enforcement Delay, Cites Problems Encountered by Physician Practices

By Kathy McCoy

Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) President and CEO Susan Turney has called for another delay on 5010 enforcement in a letter to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, stating that “Medical practices throughout the nation are experiencing significant challenges” implementing the mandated conversion... Read More

Case Study “I have never worked before on a medical billing software that was this user-friendly!” Michelle Busey, Dimitri Golfinopoulos, DO, PA Have you ever worked with a software program that seemed almost too easy to use? Michelle Busey has—it’s how she describes her experience after a year of using Kareo... Read More

Case Study “Kareo was the best decision we ever made.” Tracy Bowers, Med-Bill For Tracy Bowers, moving to a new medical billing software seemed so intimidating, she put it off until it was no longer an option. Her company was doing a brisk business but her software could not keep up... Read More

Billing Tip of the Month

Review Your Fee Schedule Yearly

Tammy Chidester, CPC, CPMA, CEMC, PCS, MERA Consulting

Are you leaving money on the table that could be in your pocket? Do you review your fee schedule yearly? If not, chances are you are not collecting as much reimbursement as you could be. Under-priced fees can cost a practice thousands of dollars every year... Read More

Top News and Ideas from Industry

AMA Calls on Congress to Block ICD-10 Mandate on Doctors

Charles Fiegl, Amednews, Feb. 6, 2012

Citing high implementation costs and coinciding federal mandates, the American Medical Association has urged House Speaker John Boehner (R, Ohio) to stop the switch to the new diagnosis coding sets known as ICD-10… Read More

AMA, AHIMA at Odds on ICD-10

Diana Manos, Healthcare IT News, Feb. 2, 2012

While the American Medical Association (AMA) is calling for a halt to ICD-10, the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) is countering by urging all to stay the course toward the Oct. 1, 2013 deadline… Read More

Medicare Intensifying Documentation Reviews Before Payment

Charles Fiegl, Amednews, Jan. 16, 2012

High error rates on claims for certain hospital services has led the Medicare contractor covering Florida to propose withholding payment for certain cardiology and orthopedic procedures until the payer has had the chance to review physician documentation… Read More

Providers Must Agree to EFT for Medicare Payment

AAPC News, Jan. 27, 2012

Providers and suppliers have until March 31 to comply with the new Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) transaction standards for submitting claims electronically, and can even opt out and continue to submit paper-based claims if they so choose. If they want to get paid, however, they’ll have to accept the wave of the future… Read More

Free Preventive Visit Can End in Sticker Shock for Patients

Victoria Stagg Elliott, Amednews, Jan. 23, 2012

Physicians are advised to communicate clearly with patients about what happens to bills when a preventive visit results in the need for acute care… Read More

HCPCS Quarterly Update Adds, Deletes Codes

AAPC News, Jan. 27, 2012

A new list of “other” HCPCS Level II codes and modifiers to be added or removed for the second quarter of 2012 is now posted on the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) website. CMS is deleting two modifiers added just two years ago… Read More

MACs Update LCDs for 2012

AAPC News, Jan.  27, 2012

Medicare administrative contractors (MACs) are fervently updating their local coverage determinations (LCDs) to coincide with 2012 coding changes brought forth by the American Medical Association (AMA) and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)… Read More

Several Postponements Benefit Practices

AAPC News, Jan.  25, 2012

When President Obama signed into law legislation to temporarily prevent the scheduled Medicare sustainable growth rate (SGR)-related payment cut, he also extended a number of other “expiring provisions” affecting your practices… Read More

Why Meaningful Use and ICD-10 Implementation Projects Aren't Working Together

ICD-10 Watch, Jan. 31, 2012

There's a way to soften the impact that ICD-10 implementation has on your budget. It involves working on ICD-10 and Meaningful Use compliance as the same project… Read More

Patients Feel a Little More Confident They Can Pay for Care

Victoria Stagg Elliott, Amednews, Jan. 30, 2012

An index measuring patients' confidence in their ability to pay for care is going up -- but not yet to a point that indicates they're feeling out of the economic woods. Many are still unsure about their financial situation, and physician office visits may not return to pre-recession levels anytime soon… Read More

Do’s and Don’ts for Managed Care Contracts

Delly Parham, AS, CPC-A, AAPC News, Jan. 25, 2012

Government and insurance regulations, turnover in staff, and the day-to-day headaches of running an office leave us with little time to monitor our insurance contracts and the rates insurers pay. But failing to review your reimbursements could lead to huge losses. Here are a few tips to avoid financial losses… Read More

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