What Service is Not Available? Inter-Facility Transfers This week’s blog will focus on inter-facility transports. For the most part, we’ll discuss hospital-to-hospital transfers where the patient has been treated at one hospital but must move to a different hospital in most cases for care that is not provided at the facility where they currently are […]
Balance Billing Under the Microscope Growing Concern For some time now, there seems to be a swell of growing concern regarding the practice of balance billing and especially under the microscope is the ambulance industry- air- and ground-ambulance alike. In some cases, there has arisen an almost villainization of the practice that so many ambulance […]
New York State Braces for Loss of Reimbursement April 1st When New York Governor Andrew Cuomo presents his administration’s 2019 budget on April 1st, ambulance providers in the Empire State stand to experience a significant loss in reimbursement dollars at a time when making ends meet is as difficult as ever. Cuomo is recommending that […]
Documenting Cardiac Arrests for Billing Challenging Scenarios We’re sure that you’ll agree with us that patient cardiac arrests present the most challenging of scenarios EMS providers encounter in the field. Documenting arrest scenarios also presents challenges following the run. Once we have had time to step back and think about the event, that’s when we […]
CMS Announces New ET3 Model A Valentine from Medicare! The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) sent out a Valentine greeting yesterday announcing a new payment pilot program that the ambulance industry will eventually greet with much love. Using a staged announcement located at a fire house […]
CMS Debuts “What’s Covered” App eMedicare Goes Mobile This week Medicare released its latest eMedicare tool and it’s one any person can use on their mobile device. The “What’s Covered” app was launched on January 28th. In a press release posted to CMS.gov and introduced via e-mail to CMS listserv recipients, the app was introduced […]
Influenza. The Ambulance. Documentation. An Annual Topic It’s flu season once again. Given that this blog originates from a desk located in the northeastern United States, we can tell you that the flu has hit here with a vengeance. H1N1 is back to visit and was predominantly prevalent across the United States with influenza A […]
Shutdown and ACA- What’s Next and How Will They Affect the EMS Bottom Line? History By now, most likely you have heard that the United States Government is experiencing a partial shutdown. The Trump Administration and Congress reached a stalemate just before the Congressional Christmas break stemming from a disagreement over funding for a southern […]
CMS Releases AIF and PUF for Calendar Year 2019 AIF Announced The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued Transmitttal 4172 (Change Request 11031) on November 30th to announce the Ambulance Inflation Factor (AIF) for Calendar Year 2019 (CY 2019). The ambulance industry will benefit from a positive gain again this year with the […]
New Virginia Law Shines Light on Ambulance Billing Backlash SB663 Driven by a larger nationwide discussion regarding balance or “surprise” billing, a new law enacted in Virginia and set to take effect in March of 2019 will force air ambulance providers to inform patients of their choices prior to the flight. Virginia Senator Jeremy McPike […]
