In today’s healthcare industry today, there is a lot of buzz and hype surrounding automation. Large healthcare networks, medical facilities, and revenue cycle management service providers alike are looking to achieve a more efficient, robust revenue cycle through automation technologies. Any technology that can free employees to focus on high-value tasks and make revenue cycle […]
A long-awaited and controversial final rule on healthcare price transparency was released Thursday by the federal government. The rule, mandated under a June 2019 executive order by President Donald Trump, requires private group health plans and individual health insurance market plans to disclose pricing and cost-sharing information in a consumer-friendly format. The mandate, which takes effect on January […]
Labs soon will have to work harder to merit the maximum allowed Medicare payment for high-throughput tests used to detect SARS-CoV-2. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has been paying labs $100 per test — up from $51 — since a public health emergency (PHE) for COVID-19 was declared on March 18, 2020. […]
A new interim final rule with comment period ensures Medicare reimbursement for the administration of a COVID-19 vaccine and provider use of innovative treatments for the novel coronavirus. The rule released last night states that Medicare will pay providers $28.39 for the administration of a single-dose COVID-19 vaccine. In the event an approved COVID-19 vaccine requires multiple […]
Healthcare information technology is the approach of information technology to healthcare; it refers to the electronics systems that healthcare professionals utilize to store, share, and analyze the health information. The adoption of health information technology has shown to improve the quality and effectiveness of healthcare, and it promotes individual and public health while bettering the […]
The base Medicare reimbursement rate for COVID-19 tests using high throughput technology will decrease to $75 next year unless labs can process results in 2 days or less. CMS will reduce the base Medicare reimbursement rate for COVID-19 tests done by laboratories using high throughput technology, according to a new announcement. The announcement made late last […]
The pandemic continues to impact Medicare reimbursement. COVID-19 continues to make news on the regulatory front with two new directives from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), centering on testing for the deadly coronavirus and formal coding edits for the Medicare Administrative Contractors (MACs) on payments with the CS modifier. There’s a new […]
For 2021, there are 490 new, 47 revised and 58 deleted ICD-10-CM codes. We will cover the ICD-10-CM guidelines in this article and the ICD-10-CM code changes next month. There are several important changes to the guidelines, including those relating to COVID-19 coding. The updates for these were a little late this year due to […]
CMS recently added 11 new services to the Medicare telehealth services list, qualifying the services for Medicare reimbursement through the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE). The new telehealth services cover some cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation services, as well as certain neurostimulator analysis and programming services. The additions to the Medicare telehealth list were made in […]
Becker’s ASC Review compiled a timeline of significant medical coding updates that have been proposed or implemented so far this year: January CMS began paying for certain angioplasty and stenting procedures in ASCs on Jan. 1, under its 2020 Medicare Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System and ASC Payment System Final Rule. Here are the Current Procedural Terminology […]