Earlier this year, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Service (CMS) announced its latest payment program: the Comprehensive Primary Care Plus (CPC+) model. Set to start at the beginning of 2017, CPC+ is a payment model that will give a monthly payment to providers to manage care for patients, in an effort to create more […]
In 2015, Congress passed the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act, known as MACRA. Since then, regulators have been working on releasing guidelines and programs governing MACRA, and many of these impact anesthesiologists. Parts of the proposed rule (it hasn’t gone into effect yet) were announced on April 27 and discussed on this blog previously, […]
Do you know how well your anesthesia practice is performing? Providers think they know the answer to this question, but when they really drill down to figure out exactly how well their practices are performing, they often find themselves struggling to come up with an answer. After all, there is a sliding scale of “well.” […]
Choosing anesthesia billing companies to handle coding, billing, provider credentialing, and revenue cycle management for your practice is a wise choice because you can lower costs, increase efficiency, improve patient service, reduce claim denial rates, boost revenue, reduce overhead, and avoid penalties from not complying with regulations. With all the different providers out there, selecting […]
Few things are more frustrating to a practice than having a claim denied by a payer. Denied claims result in delayed payments at best, and no payment at all at worst. Many practices don't know why certain claims are denied, or why their claim denial rate is as high as it is. Fortunately, practices can […]
Value-based reimbursement has become the standard for medical billing and coding. Years ago, when value-based reimbursement was just coming into its own, many providers doubted that it would take hold. Now, though, it has been wholeheartedly endorsed by CMS – through its Merit-Based Incentive Payment System – and many private insurers. It is estimated that […]
Medical practices of all kinds are always concerned about patient collections, especially as out-of-pocket expenses for patients increase. With an increase in these expenses comes more difficulty with collecting all of the payments a practice is owed for its services. Hence, approving patient collections is of paramount importance for a medical practice. Here is more […]
Excessive days in accounts receivable (A/R) can hinder the financial health of an anesthesia provider, and constitute one of the main problems anesthesia billing and coding specialists have with a practice. There are many reasons why days in A/R rise, and often, they increase without anyone really knowing why – or even being aware that […]
Every year, the Office of the Inspector General for the Department of Health and Human Services releases a Work Plan that covers the office's plan to oversee, audit, and ensure compliance with all programs and guidelines under the DHS aegis. The Work Plan is a starting point for any provider that is paid under the […]
The Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS) is a quality reporting system created by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services designed to properly assess the quality of care that is provided to patients. Providers can use PQRS to quantify how often they are meeting a certain quality metric, and can modify their care based on […]
