75% of discharge summaries don't mention pending test results

Primary care physicians often are left in the dark about what tests to follow up on.

http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2009/08/31/prsa0831.htm

Perseverance Poem from an Unknown Author

"When things go wrong as they sometimes will;
When the road you're trudging seems all uphill;
When the funds are low, and the debts are high
And you want to smile, but have to sigh;
When care is pressing you down a bit-
Rest if you must, but do not quit.
Success is failure turned inside out;
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt;
And you can never tell how close you are
It may be near when it seems so far;
So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit-
It's when things go wrong that you must not quit."
~ Unknown

Practices not collecting all money due at time of visit

Practices are losing money every day due to the fact the staff is not for sure on the amount of money to collect at time of visit. Most the time they just collect the patients copay and nothing else. Good communication is essential between billing, providers and staff. Your billing staff should keep the provider and front office up to date on what is covered by insurance companies and what is not covered. Also, I cannot stress enough the importance of verifying patient information before the patient is seen. A patient might have a policy that has a $20 copay for office visits but anything else (test and/or procedures) may be subject to deductibles or they may pay 80% and the patient be responsible for 20%. Knowing this information better prepares your front office staff to know how much to collect at time of visit. Statics show once the patient leaves your office you have a less chance of ever collecting from them.

Today

Such a beautiful morning. Morning is my favorite time of the day. I guess the newness of it. So thankful that I have been given this day. Knowing that today is a gift and I need to make the best out of it and do my best. I don't believe the day should be wasted because it is such a valuable gift that last just a little while. Sometimes our circumstances are not what we choose them to be but we can always choose what are attitude will be.

We have to take the good with the bad and remember "Count it all joy when you fall into various trials (James 1:2). Somestimes we think that we must always be on top of the world but remember we grow when we are in the valleys.

So be encouraged today no matter what your lifes situation is you might not control what is going on but you can control your out look. Be Happy for today once it is gone you can never get it back!

How to increase your business

A great way to increase your business is to review your productivity pattern. Figure out which is your busiest day and which is your slowest day. Now take your slowest day and do a promotion. Attract customers by having a special on this day. This should increase your revenue and get your name out there.

Let me know how it goes!

Karen

Self Employed new site

New site hopefully very informative! Visit often!

http://sites.google.com/site/selfemployedsite/home

Healthcare town hall

What do you think? Do you think Government Run Healthcare is the answer?

Article from Healthcare Town Hall -
http://www.walb.com/global/story.asp?s=10741906

Who says you can't?

Thomas Alva Edison was born on February 11, 1847 in Milan, Ohio; the seventh and last child of Samuel and Nancy Edison. When Edison was seven his family moved to Port Huron, Michigan. Edison lived here until he struck out on his own at the age of sixteen. Edison had very little formal education as a child, attending school only for a few months. He was taught reading, writing, and arithmetic by his mother, but was always a very curious child and taught himself much by reading on his own. This belief in self-improvement remained throughout his life.

I am a firm believer we can do anything we put our minds to.

This was sent to me in an email the other day - Enjoy!

YOU ARE WHAT YOU THINK..

It's a psychological law that whatever you desire to accomplish
you must first impress upon your subconscious mind.

Your inner thoughts can cause you to be rich or poor,
loved or unloved, happy or unhappy,
attractive or unattractive, powerful or weak.

What you impress upon your mind, you'll inevitably become.
Relentless, repetitive self talk will change your self image.
You'll affect your subconscious
mind with verbal repetition.
Constant repetition carries conviction.

When you change your values
you'll change your behavior.

Start thinking of yourself as becoming
the person you want to be..
Self suggestion will make you
the master of yourself.

You can become whatever you want to be.
When you believe you can, you can.

Pursue your goals and aspirations. If you think you can, you can. Don't let anybody tell you otherwise!!

Have a super day!

Concierge Medicine

What are your thoughts on Concierge Medicine.

I personally think it is a great idea! Health insurance is so expensive and then they don't cover everything so you still have a large amount of out of pocket expenses. Conceirge Medicine I see as not only affordable but also a great way for a healthier lifestyle. Meaning preventative medicine. People will be more willing to go to the doctors before a health crisis, therefore, they will be healthier.

http://mybillingsolutions.net

http://physiciansnews.com/business/204.kalogredis.html

CMS Proposed Changes for 2010

CMS is proposing to stop making payment for consultation codes, which are typically billed by specialists and are paid at a higher rate than equivalent evaluation and management (E/M) services. Practitioners will use existing E/M service codes when providing these services instead. Resulting savings would be redistributed to increase payments for the existing E/M services.

CMS wants to raise reimbursement for Primary Care Providers including Family Doctors, Internists and Geriatric Medicine Specialties by 6 to 8 percent.

Not so good for Cardiologist and Radiologists fee schedule proposes cuts that reduce payment for services that require the use of expensive equipment the proposed cuts translate to an overall 11 percent.


http://www.cms.hhs.gov/apps/media/press/release.asp?Counter=3469

http://www.mybillingsolutions.net/

Is Your Patient in a Managed Care Plan?

It is extremely important that you question your patient about their Medicare coverage each time they arrive at your office for an appointment. It is important to ask them what kind of coverage they have so you can be assured that you will send their claim to the correct entity. A patient who has chosen to enroll in a Medicare Managed Care Plan will have an additional card from that plan.

Most of the denials we see from Medicare is patient is enrolled in an HMO. I cannot stress the importance of getting correct billing information before submitting your charges. If not, the claims are billed only to be denied for patient enrolled in HMO. Then we have to find out what the correct insurance is then rebill it. This causes your revenue not to flow as fast as it should and if your billing is done in house it cost you more money.


http://www.mybillingsolutions.net/

Ga Medicare

Dear Part B Providers,

Claims rejecting for edit 307 – Diagnosis code inactive or invalid
Medicare Part B claims for Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi
submitted on July 2, 2009,all rejected on audit trails for invalid
diagnosis codes. This affected all submitters.

We are reprocessing these claims so they will not need to be
resubmitted. These claims will be backdated to the correct date
of receipt. Corrected audit trail reports will be created and
should be available by 5:00 p.m. Central Time today.

Cahaba Government Benefit Administrators®, LLC, apologizes for
any inconvenience this may have caused. Please contact EDI Services
at (866) 582-3253 if you have any questions.

http://mybillingsolutions.net/

GMA - Tory Johnson

Great info - Tory Johnson did a great job on GMA this morning!

Inspiration

Albert Einstein:
The ideals which have lighted me on my way and time after time given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been Truth, Goodness, and Beauty. . . . The ordinary objects of human endeavour -- property, outward success, luxury -- have always seemed to me contemptible

http://www.mybillingsolutions.net/

Vista Print

I use Vista Print for all my printing!

Day Spring

Happy 4th of July

Wishing everyone a Happy 4th of July!

Savings

Looking for great savings on all your printing needs? VistaPrint is the best!

Click here to see for yourself!


Medical Billing Solutions

Medicare Dark Day Reminder

Dark Day Reminder
To transfer the workload successfully, it will be necessary to impose a system
“dark day” for each segment. A “dark day” is a business day during the cutover
period when the Medicare claims processing systems, customer service, and the
Interactive Voice Response (IVR) service will not be available for normal
business operations. The dark day for Georgia B providers is August 3, 2009.
This means the first date that providers can begin contacting Cahaba GBA’s
Customer Service and Interactive Voice Response (IVR) service will be the
following day, August 4, 2009.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

J10 A/B Medicare Administrative Contractor New Workload Numbers
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) needs to change the contractor
workload numbers for the Part A and Part B workloads in the States of Alabama,
Georgia, and Tennessee when that workload is transitioned to the J10 A/B MAC.
These changes need to be made because certain CMS applications need to
individually identify each workload. These workloads will be transitioned to the
J10 A/B MAC as indicated below.

PART B= Georgia
MAC Workload Number= 10202
Effective Date= 08/01/2009
Current Contractor Number=00511

Georgia Medicare Part B claims submitted to the J10 A/B MAC, Cahaba GBA, after
3:30 p.m. CT (4:30 p.m. ET) on July 31, 2009, MUST have the new receiver ID,
10202, in segment ISA08 and GS03 as well as in loop 1000B, segment NM109.
Claims sent without the new ID will REJECT. Please contact your vendor to
insure your system is updated.

Updates from other blog

http://medbilso.wordpress.com/

Medicare Part B 06-30-09

Due to a hardware problem at the Enterprise Data Center (EDC) last night, all
Medicare Part B contractors who are served
by the EDC are unavailable today. At this time, Cahaba has been informed this
outage will continue into the afternoon.
This will affect both Clerical Error Reopenings and Customer Service
Representatives (CSR) Customer Service.

Our automated IVR system is still available, electronic claims can be
transmitted, and the EDI help desk is available.
Cahaba apologizes for this interruption in service.

June Ga Medicare Newsletter

June 2009 Medicare Newsletter is now available on line!