To-Bill-or-Not-to-Bill-Blog-01-13-2017

To Bill or Not to Bill?

To Bill or Not to Bill? Shakespearian EMS? We can only wonder what the documentation would look like if the great bard Shakespeare would have been a member of the EMS community. “Dispatheth via troubadour to yonder hamlet for a person swooning with the vapors.” Okay…enough of that. But we borrow a take on the […]

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EMS-Facing-Uncertainty-in-2017-Blog-12-16-2016

EMS Facing Uncertainty in 2017

EMS Facing Uncertainty in 2017 Happy New Year! We’re just two weeks from shouting Happy New Year! The year 2017 is just around the corner and the ambulance industry faces unusual uncertainties surrounding funding and reimbursements in the upcoming year. Just before we begin the two-week celebration of Christmas and New Years Day, we thought […]

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OIG-Announces-New-Ambulance-AKS-Safe-Harbor-Blog-12-09-2016

OIG Announces New Ambulance AKS Safe Harbor

OIG Announces New Ambulance AKS Safe Harbor Breaking News The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) issued a new rule pertaining to government-owned and operated ambulance providers and suppliers this week regarding the waiving of Medicare copayments and deductibles for emergency ambulance services under the Federal Anti-Kickback Statute (AKS). The rule was published in the […]

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The-Power-of-the-Pre-Auth-Email-12-02-2016

The Power of the “Pre-Auth”!

The Power of the “Pre-Auth”! Necessary Evil! The American healthcare picture has increasingly become more complex. The advent of the Affordable Care Act and other changes have ushered in literally thousands of new healthcare insurance coverage options. These options change all the time and each year new plans with new rules and requirements spring up. […]

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New-Stuff-From-Medicare-Blog-11-18-2016

New Stuff From Medicare

New Stuff From Medicare Two Updates Two recent Medicare updates carrying a potential impact on your EMS agency’s cash flow, complete with compliance implications popped up on our radar screen recently. Today’s blog will focus on those two updates. MUEs The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services recently updated the list of what they call […]

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Historic-Election-Now-What-Blog-11-11-2016

Historic Election- Now What?

Historic Election- Now What? You’ve Lived History How many of you stayed up most, if not all night on Election Day? As EMS providers, most of us are used to weird hours and sleep deprivation anyway. Even if you were alerted for a call, our guess is you found yourself huddled around the TV screen in […]

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Landing-the-Series-Blog-11-04-2016

Setting the “Stage”

Setting the “Stage” Landing the Series Today we’re landing the “Documentation Review as a Habit” series. Our seventh and final installment of this series focuses on documenting the “stage” of the patient’s illness or injury in the Patient Care Report (PCR) and the importance of doing so. For Emergencies and Beyond When documenting the 9-1-1 […]

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Its-All-in-the-Timing-Blog-10-28-2016

It’s All in the Timing

It’s All in the Timing Part VI Our “Documentation Review as a Habit” series rolls into Part VI with a discussion about capturing timing in the Patient Care Report’s (PCR’s) documentation. Not only is there an importance placed on documenting the correct date and time of the incident, chronologically, but there is even more importance […]

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Documenting-Causation-for-Illnesses-Blog-10-21-2016

Documenting Causation for Illnesses

Documenting Causation for Illnesses V. Our “Documentation as a Habit” series moves on to Part V this week. In it, we’ll discuss causation or the synonym we use a lot in healthcare terminology, etiology. Last week we talked about mechanism of injury which is basically the trauma part of any causation discussion. This week, we […]

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