What does the ICD-10 delay mean for physicians? The ICD-10 compliance date will be delayed by at least one year, based on a provision in a federal law signed Tuesday that pushes the date to no sooner than October 1, 2015. It is unclear at this time how this unexpected delay will impact the health care industry, which has been feverishly working to prepare for the transition to the new code sets, previously scheduled for October 1, 2014. The International Classification of Disease tenth revision (ICD-10) is a system of coding created in 1992 as the successor to ... April 16, 2014 General ICD-10, Insurance/Reimbursement, Practice Management 0 0 Comment Read More »
Anthem accidentally overpays some physicians Anthem Blue Cross recently notified almost 8,500 practices of a claims pricing error that caused some physicians to be paid for services provided to individual/exchange patients at Anthem's higher Prudent Buyer PPO rates. In the April 9 notice to physicians, Anthem states it had been applying “discounted rates inconsistently” on claims for dates of service January 1 through March 31, 2014. According to the payor, the error was corrected effective for dates of service on or after April 1, 2014. While not mentioned in the notice, Anthem has advised the California ... April 16, 2014 General Covered California, Health Insurance Exchange, Anthem Blue Cross 0 0 Comment Read More »
Local Group Announces Plans for a New Non-Profit Medical School A local group led by Dr. Dev GnanaDev, a longtime surgeon and nationally recognized leader in health care, announced Monday it has formulated a plan to develop a privately-funded, non-profit medical school in Colton, Southern California. The allopathic (M.D.) school, known as California University of Science and Medicine (Cal Med), College of Medicine, seeks to receive accreditation from the Licensing Committee on Medical Education in time to welcome its first class in 2016. “This is an exciting and much-needed opportunity for medical students in the Inland Empire and California,” ... April 16, 2014 General Cal Med, California University of Science and Medicine, Medical School 0 0 Comment Read More »
IMQ Introduces New Judicial Review Service & Professionalism Course Professionalism Courses for Physicians and Pharmacists Coming in May The IMQ Professionalism Program for Physicians and Professionalism Program for Pharmacists have both been scheduled for May 17-18 at the DoubleTree Hotel LAX-El Segundo in Los Angeles. These programs address both the legal and ethical dimensions of the practice of medicine in California, and introduce participants to a range of resources to address present or future problems. Both courses consist of pre-course assessments, the two-day ethics course, and a series of longitudinal assessments to track participants’ progress. ... April 14, 2014 General judicial review service, professionalism course , Institute for Medical Quality (IMQ) 0 0 Comment Read More »
CMS to publicly release Medicare physician payment data The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced yesterday that it would soon begin publishing individual Medicare physician billing data, despite objections from the American Medical Association (AMA) and other provider groups. CMS intends to publicly post the data as early as April 9. The release will cover some $77 billion worth of Medicare Part B payments made to physicians in 2012 and will include physicians’ provider IDs, their charges, their patient volumes and what they received in reimbursements from Medicare. Individual patient level data will not be released. ... April 9, 2014 Medicare CMS, Medicare, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services 0 0 Comment Read More »
HHS releases security risk assessment tool to help providers with HIPAA compliance The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has released a new tool to help guide health care providers in small to medium sized practices conduct information security risk assessments of their organizations. The tool, available at www.HealthIT.gov, is the result of a collaborative effort by the HHS Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) and Office for Civil Rights (OCR). It is designed to help practices conduct and document a risk assessment in a thorough, organized fashion at their own pace by allowing them to ... April 9, 2014 General HIPAA, HIT, Medical Records, Health Information Technology 0 0 Comment Read More »
Anthem Blue Cross to host webinars on its exchange products Anthem Blue Cross is inviting physicians to attend a series of special one-hour presentations about their products being offered under Covered California, the state's health benefit exchange. The webinars will be offered in late April and how to confirm participation status, overview of their exchange/mirror product provider networks, plan names, enrollment periods, covered benefits, sample ID cards, risk adjustment and provider resources. Dates and times for the webinars are Tuesday, April 22, from 2-3 p.m., and Tuesday, April 29, from 2-3 p.m. Participants do not need to register to attend, but ... April 4, 2014 General Webinars, Anthem Blue Cross, Covered California, Health Insurance Exchange 0 0 Comment Read More »
Congress passes California Medicare GPCI fix After 10 long years of lobbying efforts by the California Medical Association (CMA), Congress has finally passed a bill to update California's outdated Medicare localities. The long overdue fix will update California’s Medicare physician payment regions to the same Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSA) used to pay hospitals and raise payment levels for urban counties misclassified as rural, while holding remaining rural counties harmless from cuts. The MSAs used to determine payment rates for hospitals are continuously updated, so that reimbursement accurately reflects local costs to deliver care. The physician payment ... April 4, 2014 Medicare Rural Health, Geographic Practice Cost Index, GPCI, Medicare 0 0 Comment Read More »
Are you using Windows XP? You may need to upgrade Physician offices using Windows XP should be aware that Microsoft will no longer be providing support for Windows XP after April 8, 2014. This means that updates, bug fixes, security patches and troubleshooting will not be available for systems operating Windows XP, making such systems vulnerable to security risks. While the California Medical Association (CMA) has received concerns from physicians who are being told that they will be in "automatic violation of the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)" for using Windows XP after April 8, the HIPAA security ... April 4, 2014 General HIPAA Security Rule, Health Information Technology, HIPAA 0 0 Comment Read More »
SGR patched through for another year Today, the U.S. Senate passed a year-long patch to stop the 24 percent Medicare sustainable growth rate (SGR) cut that was to go into effect on April 1. The bill, which already passed the U.S. House of Representatives last week, provides a 0.5 percent physician payment update through December 31, 2014, and then a 0 percent update until April 1, 2015. The bill now goes to President Obama for his signature. Congress was again unable to come to an agreement on how to fund a permanent repeal of the badly ... April 4, 2014 Medicare Federal Legislative Advocacy, Medicare, SGR, Sustainable Growth Rate 0 0 Comment Read More »
