Practice Management
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is going to issue new Medicare cards, replacing beneficiaries’ Social Security numbers with unique ID numbers, by April 2019. However, the Health & Human Services Advisory Panel on Outreach and Educations says CMS isn’t doing enough to share more about the process with healthcare providers, who will have to make significant changes in their billing practices as the new ID card system is implemented gradually; CMS will start …
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Urgent care doctors, physician assistants, and nurse practitioners who did not demonstrate that they met requirements for meaningful use of electronic health record systems as mandated by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will see a 3% decrease in Medicare payments starting January 1, 2017. As you read here, CMS first announced its plans to require clinicians to show meaningful use during a finite 90-day period that year. That finite period was later …
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Those who herald the Affordable Care Act (ACA, or “Obamacare”) as a success continue to be vexed by the six million or so citizens who are eligible for Medicaid but simply don’t sign up for it. Perhaps that should not be surprising, however, given that most people eligible for Medicaid are exempt from having to pay a penalty for being uninsured—one of the ACA’s prime incentives for individuals to get insured—and those eligible can sign …
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Urgent message: CMS offers stimulus funds to providers who “attest” that their EHR use improves patient care: up to $18,000 in 2011 alone. The sooner you do, the more you stand to earn. ERIC McDONALD “Meaningful use” refers to the use of a “certified” electronic health record (EHR) to meet specific objectives established by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), which administers the EHR incentive program. An EHR is certified when it demonstrates …
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