The Future of the Medical Billing Industry
Lately, there has been a lot of speculation amongst medical billing company owners about what the future of the medical billing industry will be. We have been working in this industry since 1994 and have seen significant changes over the years. The future of the medical billing industry is still bright and here is why.…
Vote On American Healthcare Act Cancelled By House Republicans
The House Republicans recently cancelled a vote that was planned on the American Health Care Act (AHCA). AHCA is planned to repeal and replace big parts of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) making use of the budget reconciliation process. Sources said that the vote was canceled, as the House Republicans do not have enough members…
CMS Seeking Proposals For 2018 Medicare Plans
Medicare Advantage and Medicare Part D prescription drug plan programs managers are taking steps to ensure the programs stay the same for the next year as well. The 2018 Advance Notice packet for the programs issued by the managers appears roughly like the Medicare program advance notice packets that were posted earlier. There have been…
MACRA And MIPS Preparation – What You Need To Know
CMS released the final rule that calls for significant legislative changes to the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) in October 2016. MACRA repeals the Medicare Part B Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) reimbursement formula and replaces it with Merit-Based Incentive Payment System or MIPS. As per MIPS, 85% of the Medicare reimbursements must be…
The Healthcare Landscape Is Changing
Mergers and acquisitions have been the hot talks in the healthcare landscape for many months now. Health systems are merging, insurers are merging, and many hospitals are buying physician practices at unprecedented rates. Earlier in the 90’s, hospitals started buying up practices and employing doctors, but the result was not like what was expected by…
The 21st Century Cures Act Passed By Congress
Congress has been working in a bi-partisan way from 2015. They were working on an important medical innovation bill and the bill is intended to increase funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) while streamlining and reforming the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) approval process for the new devices and drugs. This bill is…
Specificity Grace Period For ICD 10 Ends
ICD-10 replaced ICD-9 coding system last year, and October 1, 2016 marked one year of the substitution. Reports say that the latest ICD-10 coding model increased the amount of data that is captured by the diagnostic codes. It also enhanced the specificity regarding disease severity and offered more data on specific anatomy the condition or…
Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Rules For 2017 Finalized
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has released updates to their different Medicare payment systems. In a recent move, CMS published the final rules for Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System (HOPPS) and the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS), within a day of each other. The detailed summary of 2017 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Final…
CMS Issues Final Rule For Quality Payment Program
The final rule was released by the CMS on October 14, 2016. This rule will implement a new Quality Payment Program (QPP) established by the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA). The much-disliked Medicare Sustainable Growth Rate Formula (SGR) was revoked by the MACRA in order to determine the updates to the Medicare Part…
