The chaos and confusion fomented throughout the American healthcare industry by the continuing COVID-19 pandemic has been bad enough in of itself – but when coders found themselves unable to accurately document what was even going on with patients, things got even worse. Read more
Typically, we would have the Final Rule updates to the Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) for the 2021 fiscal year (FY) 60 days prior to its effective date. However, this year, citing the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE), publication was delayed. The final rule was published on September 1, or 30 days before the effective date.
On August 4, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released the Changes to Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System (OPPS) for the 2021 calendar year (CY). The proposed regulations were published in the Federal Register on August 12, and comments are due by October 5.
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Beginning July 1,2020 Medicare required prior authorization for five procedure classes: blepharoplasty, botulinum toxin injections, panniculectomy, rhinoplasty, and vein ablation. As a reminder, prior authorization was announced through the Calendar […]
I’m sure everyone has heard the saying, “the only constant is change.” Well, it certainly rings true these days. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a second interim final […]
Panacea has summarized the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and American Medical Association (AMA) payment and coding updates, effective July 2020 (with some retroactive changes). Please review the updates for possible implementation in your hospital chargemaster and/or review by applicable department, coding and billing staff.
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As many of you have heard, there are major changes coming to evaluation and management (E&M) codes in 2021. The changes were finalized in the 2020 Physician Final Rule. Read more
Please join us on Thursday, June 4, 2020, at 1 pm ET, for our 90-minute live webinar, “How to Avoid the 5 Pitfalls In Coding Nuclear Medicine, Diagnostic Radiology, and Interventional Services.”
The webinar will focus on learning how to avoid coding and compliance risks and how to capture all charges for Nuclear Medicine and Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology. 1.5 CEUs will be awarded to attendees from RCC, RCCIR, AAPC. Read more
Changes in payment policies, laws, and regulatory oversight are forcing healthcare organizations to respond to increased regulatory scrutiny and audits. Medicare audits have increased by 936 percent in the past five years*. Ad hoc inpatient audits are no longer enough of a defensive strategy. Robust internal auditing programs are becoming a must for inpatient organizations.
In 1992, CPT coding options for interventional radiology (IR) procedures underwent a seismic shift in “how” to code. Gone was the old method of complete procedure codes (a one-size-fits-all code); the new method added separate options to describe “what was done” and “where or how you did it.”
