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What’s on Your 2021 OIG Compliance Greatest Hits List?

Compliance plans are critical to making sure your organization is mitigating risk. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) recommends that you audit a minimum of 10 professional encounters per year, per physician – but if you’re not going above and beyond that by performing focused audits, you’re putting your practice at risk by ignoring everything else (not to mention, you may be missing opportunities by under-coding). Read more

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New ICD-10 Codes Create Clarity in Capturing COVID in 2021

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

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Three Key Takeaways from the FY 2021 Inpatient Prospective Payment System Proposed Rule

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.

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Five Key Takeaways from the CY 2021 Outpatient Prospective Payment System Proposed Rule

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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What Radiology Practices Need to Know About Medicare’s Prior-Authorization Requirements

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 […]

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Relaxing Rules for Telehealth

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 […]

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CMS and AMA payment and coding updates, effective July, 1 2020

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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E&M Changes: How Will They Affect Your Practice?

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

Ad reads Insights Email How To Avoid The 5 Pitfalls in Coding Nuclear Medicine, Diagnostic Radiology and Interventional Radiology Services Complimentary Webinar Thursday June 4 2020 - 1pm Et

Webinar: The 5 Pitfalls in Coding Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, Earn 1.5 CEUs

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

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Cultivating Homegrown Inpatient Auditors

By training coders who already are on staff, hospitals leverage institutional knowledge and build career paths.

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.

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