Tests, Measures & Questionnaires Online Registration

San Francisco, CA: July 29th 2012 Event registration for Tests, Measures and Questionnaires: San Francisco, CA powered by Eventbrite Soldotna, AK: August 24th 2012 Event management for Tests, Measures and Questionnaires – Soldotna, Alaska powered by Eventbrite

Mastering Medicare Online Registration

San Francisco, CA: July 27th Online Ticketing for Mastering Medicare: A Practical Guide To Succeeding Under RUG IV powered by Eventbrite Soldotna, AK: August 24th 2012 Online event registration for Mastering Medicare: A Practical Guide To Succeeding Under RUG IV powered by Eventbrite

Anatomy of Documentation Online Registration

San Francisco, CA: July 28th 2012 Event management for Anatomy of Documentation – powered by Eventbrite Soldotna, Alaska: August 24th 2012 Online Ticketing for Anatomy of Documentation powered by Eventbrite

New Seminar Dates and Locations

Finally, I have got to the next series of seminars. We will be visiting the Greater San Francisco area; the Greater Chicago area; Houston and Philly. See our seminar pages for more info. I am planning our webcast series that I hope to get posted in the early part of May. These series will contain some of the information in our live seminars as well or other topics. Do you have any topics you would like to be covered? Let us know and we will see if we can cover …
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Early Bird Extended and Courses Approved by FPTA

We received notice this week that the FPTA has approved all 3 of our courses scheduled for the end of this month. We are also extending our earlybird price for 1 more week. The SNF seminar will include all of the new changes effective April 1st 2012. We will be posting the rest of the schedule in the next week and we will be heading to Alaska for the end of August. Bring the family and take a cruise for labor day, that’s what we will be doing.

Do I Have To Complete ROM For Every Joint?

Question: My agency is asking me to fill in every ROM for every joint. They say I cannot write WFL or WNL or write decreased with a percentage which seems a bit tedious and unnecessary to me. What is the answer? -Frustrated in Houston, George. Answer: George, the answer is somewhere in the middle (like usual). The bigger picture you present the better. The more things you show that are wrong with a patient, the better justification. However, your main mission is to show that the impairment is affecting function …
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CMS Dropped a Bombshell at the MDS Conference

I returned from the CMS conference in St Louis with my head spinning as did most of the other conference attendees that I spoke with there. John Kane dropped the bombshell which took everyone some time to absorb. He focused on the changes occurring April 1st with the announcement of defined policies which he later said had always been in place but were now being emphasized. So what are these changes? Well they relate to combining scheduled and unscheduled assessments, consequences of early and late unscheduled assessments and inactivating assessments. …
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Congress Passes Legislation to Prevent Payment Cuts

Congress passed legislation to prevent the Medicare payment cuts. The next step will be for the bill to go to the President for signature. This, I’m sure he will do with pleasure as it is attached to the bill renewing the payroll tax cuts and the jobless benefits. The whole bill is expected to cost $143 billion. See our previous post for more details of the Medicare changes.

Congress Making Deal to Forestall Medicare Cuts

Late yesterday the Congressional Conference Committee released the details of a deal that would prevent the 27.4% payment cut to Medicare providers scheduled to take place on March 1. The Geographic Practice Cost Index (GPCI) will be maintained at the current level along with an extension of the therapy cap exceptions process till the end of the year. However there are a few provisions included with this extension. a) Continues consistent use of the KX modifier when the cap ($1880 for 2012) is met provided the patient continues to meet …
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HHS to Delay Implimentation of ICD-10

HHS has now indicated that it is ready to look at postponing the implimentation od the ICD-10 system in October next year. To learn more visit the ICD Monitor through this link