HHS Secretary says EHR critical to value-based health care May 15, 2008 Congressional leaders agree to avoid further Medicare cuts May 14, 2008 States lobby Congress for greater oversight over MA marketing May 06, 2008 CMS proposes rule to slash SNF reimbursements May 02, 2008 May 12, 2008 Volume 22, Issue 19 Legislation to avoid 10.1% cut likely to come down to the wire Progress on legislation to avert the 10.1% physician pay cut scheduled to hit July 1 has slowed and action to pass the bill is not likely until Congress reconvenes after the Memorial Day holiday on June 2, Part B News has learned. Registry an alternative way to get PQRI data to CMS You still have one option to get a half-year bonus for reporting individual measures in the Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI) instead of the group measures we described last week ;PBN 5/5/08). CMS clarifies several rules for you to bill 'incident-to' You've got some long-awaited clarity to CMS's often-confounding incident-to billing guidelines, including documentation of who the supervising physician was at the time of the service, CMS says in new Transmittal 87 to the Medicare Benefit Policy Manual. Submit your application for DMEPOS accreditation now You should apply for accreditation as soon as possible if you provide durable medical equipment, prosthetics, orthotics and supplies (DMEPOS), CMS officials say. Benchmark of the Week: Denial rate by place of service, 2005 This chart compares denial rates in six common service places based on claims data from 2005 and 2006. Cardiac stress tests explained Billing for a cardiac stress test can be confusing because it's often billed in components by multiple providers in different settings. Regulations target tricky MA, Part D marketing Marketing tactics that have led confused Medicare patients into your practice may be slowed under new CMS proposals designed to restrict Medicare Advantage and Part D plan sales agents from aggressively pursuing Medicare patients, CMS announced on May 8. Ask Part B News Readers may ask questions of experts from DecisionHealth Professional Services. This week's two-part question was answered by John Bishop, PA-C, CPC of DecisionHealth Professional Services. Part B News Briefs This web site comes to you from Part B News Two Washingtonian Center 9737 Washingtonian Blvd., Ste 100 Gaithersburg, MD 20878 877-602-3835 To learn more about us click on Who We Are Copyright 1999-2008 UCG/DecisionHealth All rights reserved. Do not duplicate or redistribute in any form. Part B News is available for internal use only by authorized users. Part B News, Two Washingtonian Center 9737 Washingtonian Blvd., Ste 100 Gaithersburg, MD 20878. Phone: 877/602-3835 fax: 301/816-8945