The 2019 proposed Medicare Fee Schedule was published on July 27, 2018 by CMS at https://s3.amazonaws.com/public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2018-14985.pdf.
Pages 61 through 91 of the Executive Summary are devoted to: Modernizing Medicare Physician Payment by Recognizing Communication Technology-Based Services. Click here to read: Modernizing Medicare Physician Payment by Recognizing Communication Technology-Based Services.
This subsection is devoted…
Just as a point of providing information, please note that CMS has revised its Medicare Learning Network (MLN) booklet for telehealth services. The February 2018 edition is included in this link. https://www.cms.gov/Outreach-and-Education/Medicare-Learning-Network-MLN/MLNProducts/downloads/TelehealthSrvcsfctsht.pdf
The 2019 proposed Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Rule also seeks comments on proposed expansion of telehealth services. That will be the subject of…
A new Telemedicine Act is wending its way through the legislative process in Pennsylvania. Senate Bill 780 of 2017 (attached hereto as a PDF) has been unanimously passed by the Senate and referred to the House Professional Licensure Committee on June 19, 2018. Pennsylvania is one of the few states that does not…
Peer Review Confidentiality will become much more complicated with the addition of economic evaluation to physicians’ quality and efficiency. Physicians will be surprised to learn that many “reviews” to which they may currently be subject to could have “quality implications”, and they should be concerned if those reviews were available to other third parties instead…
On April 23, 2018, CMS issued a request for information on direct provider contracting models. In that request, (attached hereto as a PDF), CMS stated as follows:
“Under a primary care-focused DPC model, CMS could enter into arrangements with primary care practices under which CMS would pay these participating practices a fixed per…
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled, on March 27, 2018, in Regenelli v. Boggs, Monogahela Valley Hospital and UPMC/ERMI that physician performance reviews of an ER physician, who was provided by ERMI to Mon Valley Hospital, performed by a management physician within ERMI, were not protected peer review activities, and therefore the performance reviews were not…
Pennsylvania Act 70 of 2017, a copy of which is attached, changes the definition of an ambulatory surgical facility by redefining the duration of the “services” to be 24 hours, rather than a 4 hour procedure and 4 hours of supervised recovery imposed by 28 Pa. Code Section 551.21, a copy of which is also…
Although it has been almost a decade since the OIG has issued a gainsharing opinion, OIG Advisory Opinion No. 17-09 confirms the federal government’s support of the pay for performance concept.
OIG 17-09 is the first gainsharing opinion issued since the 2015 amendment of the Civil Money Penalty statute (42 U.S.C. § 1328-7a(b)(1)). As you…
On January 11, 2018, CMS announced a new voluntary episode payment model (bundled payments for care improvement advanced–BPCI Advanced) that will test a new iteration of bundled payment for the following thirty-two (32) clinical episodes:
29 Inpatient Clinical Episodes
| Acute myocardial infarction
Back & neck except spinal fusion Cardiac arrhythmia Cardiac defibrillator Cardiac valve Cellulitis |
…
In the January 11, 2018 issue of MLN Connects, CMS has now widely publicized that it issued billing guidance for major joint replacements (hip or knee) in May 2017 at ICN909065.
CMS reports that major joint replacement is one of Medicare’s top volume DRGs and, that due to the high volume of these claims, CMS…
