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.
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 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
On Tue Feb 14, CMS proposed that providers and suppliers must “report and return self-identified overpayments either within 60 days of the incorrect payment being identified or on the date when a corresponding cost report is due, whichever is later.” The new announcement is one in a series of steps Medicare is taking to protect taxpayer dollars, including efforts to prevent overpayments from occurring. These efforts include letting private auditors working on behalf of Medicare catch wasteful spending before it happens,by expanding the use of Recovery Audit Contractors; testing changes …
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I leave today for the Combined Sections Meeting in the Windy City. I will be attending a pre-conference seminar on Integrative Therapies in Physical Therapy. As usual, there is nothing directly related to the SNF PPS System but I will be attending those presentations provided by the APTA to get updates on what is happening with Outpatient paymennts and ACOs. In reference to SNF PPS, I have been accepted to attend the national training conference in St Louis. I’m not sure how much will be related to therapy, but I …
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We have changed how we will be presenting our live seminars for 2012 by scheduling both our SNF and Outpatient Part B seminars over the same weekend. This will help in keeping our registration price down for these presentations. We will be presenting Mastering Medicare: A Practical Guide To Succeeding Under RUG IV on a Friday; the Anatomy of Documentation, which was the second day of last year’s Mastering Medicare, will be scheduled on the Saturday with Tests, Measures & Questionnaires following on Sunday. This change in format will allow …
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This question has been answered in a PDF file as I have included tables that I hope will provide a better “picture” than just words. What constitutes a SNF Medicare week
This should at least make you smile. Who said “old folks can’t have fun”? This group of residents in a retirement community have fun performing their “Senior Olympic Synchronized Swimming” routine for their friends. Let it download for a little while before playing through.
It was the night before Christmas and all through the House (and Senate) members of Congress wanted to get home and so they did what Congress has been doing for the last 5 years (other than in 2010) and passed a stop-gap measure to prevent the reduction in the PFS of almost 28% and to extend the exception process until February 20th 2012. (Actually, it was not really the night before Christmas but almost.) Talk about déjà vue all over again. Both houses had already passed legislation to address the …
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The holidays are just around the corner and, as usual, Encompass will be transitioning to a “Virtual Office”. We will continue to monitor our e-mails and answer through e-mail any questions that are urgent or inportant during that time. We will be starting on Monday December 19th and continue through January 3rd. As we have done in previous years, we will be updating the website during that time. We here at Encompass want to thank those of you who attended our seminars during this past year, it was great to …
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•PTBC Recognized Continuing Competency Approval Agcy.
•Seminars automatically report to CE Broker
