Physician quality reporting system (PQRS) was established in 2007 and is a pay for reporting program that provides a combination of incentive payments and negative payment adjustments to encourage...
New Study Findings on EHR Switching Trends
Electronic health record (EHR) adoption rate continues to rise in the United States with many hospitals and physician practices progressing strongly towards meaningful use and the implementation of...
Eligibility for Health Insurance Subsidies in Question
In the United States, under the new healthcare law about 8 million people have signed up for private health plans via health insurance exchanges. However, as per the latest reports from federal...
AMA Approves New Telemedicine Policy
Telemedicine has just got a boost with the American Medical Association (AMA) approving a list of the guiding principles presented at its Annual Meeting held from June 7-11, 2014. A component...
A Detailed Look at Orthopedic CPT Code Changes 2014
From the very beginning of this year (January 1), orthopedic practices saw a series of modifications in relevant CPT codes as a part of annual changes. As per the AMA President, the latest CPT code...
Making Health Plans More Customer-oriented with HEDIS
HEDIS is an important yardstick by which health plans can measure their performance and worth. In fact, this yardstick is being employed by over 90% of health plans in the US. Results that come with...
Diagnostic Errors Rank High Among the Most Harmful Medical Mistakes
A new study published in the BMJ Quality & Safety Journal by a group of researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine found diagnostic errors to be the most common and costly...
Reimbursement for Ultrasound Guided Pain Management
Healthcare providers in any medical specialty should submit claims with appropriate medical codes and modifiers to receive proper reimbursement for services provided. This holds true for the...
Guidelines for Using ‘Separate Procedure’ CPT Codes
The AMA Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) lists a term ‘Separate Procedure’ under surgery guidelines. The term refers to the procedures and services performed as integral components of a total...