Ask the Expert: Can my PA/NP see my patients when I'm on vacation? Summer generally means vacations for everyone, and physicians are no exception. But what happens to patients when their physicians are on vacation? There are options for physician offices to continue to provide care to their patients, but the question that seems to come up annually is whether the physician assistant (PA) or nurse practitioner (NP) can provide services when the physician is out of the office and still bill as “incident to” services. The answer is no. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) states that to qualify as ... August 5, 2015 General Nurse Practitioners, Physician Assistants, Allied Health 0 0 Comment Read More »
Noridian announces new audits Noridian, California's Medicare administrative contractor, has announced it will be conducting service-specific targeted audits of procedure codes 99205 and 99233 when rendered by providers with specific specialties: 99205 performed by cardiology (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services specialty designation 06) and pulmonary (29) 99233 performed by internal medicine (11) and hematology/oncology (83) Noridian conducts these targeted reviews based on data analysis. An analysis of these procedure codes, when performed by physicians in these specialties, indicated a higher utilization by California providers when compared ... August 5, 2015 Medicare Medicare, Noridian, Audits 0 0 Comment Read More »
AMA expands initiative to transform medical education The American Medical Association (AMA) announced that it will seek to triple the number of medical schools participating in its Accelerating Change in Medical Education Consortium, launched in 2013 to reshape medical education in the United States. AMA will provide $1.5 million over the next three years to fund up to 20 additional projects that support a significant redesign of undergraduate medical education. Interested medical schools must submit their proposals by September 16, 2015. The goal of the initiative is to work toward a significant redesign of undergraduate medical education ... August 3, 2015 General Medical School, Medical Students, American Medical Association 0 0 Comment Read More »
