Congressional Committee Moves Revised Ambulance Relief Bill On 9/11… In a bit of displaced irony, on the very day we remember one of the greatest mass casualty incidents to ever strike the United States, September 11, the House Ways and Means Committee voted out an amendment to alter legislation that...
Medicare Add-On Payments- Time is Running Out! Five Months! Five Months have passed since Senators Stabenow, Roberts, Leahy, Collins and Schumer introduced S. 967 entitled the “Medicare Ambulance Access, Fraud Prevention and Reform Act of 2017” and yet the legislation has not passed. Companion bill H.R. 3236 also remains in...
Other Methods of Transportation are Contraindicated Medical Necessity Defined We talk a lot about Medical Necessity in the ambulance billing office. Medical necessity and Reasonableness are key in determining whether or not an insurance payer is obligated to pay for ambulance transport, especially for Medicare and Medicaid patients. Title XVIII...
Harvey- A Reminder BLOGGER'S NOTE - today we take a break from our normal focus to say a few words in light of the natural disaster tragedy continuing to unfold in Houston, Texas and surrounding areas in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey. We hope you’ll take a minute to read...
Friday Night Lights, EMS and ICD-10 BLOGGER’S COMMENT - Every year, this week in time, we take a minute to review specific documentation tips when treating sports injuries. Let’s hope we never have to use these skills. Have a safe and enjoyable Friday Night Lights! It all Begins Tonight! Our billing...
Compliance Isn’t Easy Being Deliberate If your EMS agency is going to strive to be 100% compliant with all of the rules and regulations that we all have to navigate in the EMS billing arena, then it means that your organizational culture must be deliberate. Compliance isn’t easy. The problem...
Railroad Medicare Cites 32.6% Denial Rate in Widespread Review Here we go again… The Railroad Medicare program, administered by government contractor Palmetto Government Benefits Administrators (Palmetto GBA) has published the results of their latest “widespread review” of BLS Non-Emergency Transports. Here we go again… Continually, our industry is turning in...
Properly Executing the Medicare ABN-Part II Just about one year ago, we used this blog space to publish a two-part series on how to properly execute the Medicare ABN. With the release of this new form, we think it is important to loop back and re-post the series once again...
UPDATE-Properly Executing the Medicare ABN-Part I Misunderstood The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has just announced the release of the revised Advance Beneficiary Notice of Noncoverage (ABN). It is important that those of us in the ambulance world who use this form on a regular basis begin to...
Repetitive Transport Documentation- Consistency is Important The Same Patient Repeat patients often suffer from chronic illnesses that persist during a period of their life span. Some patients never escape from their condition and others, thankfully improve to the point that they no longer require ambulance transportation. Because we interact with...
