Non-Emergency Transports- Two Questions to ALWAYS Ask Big Brother’s Watching! Never before has the ambulance industry been so much under the microscope when it comes to billing and receiving payment for ambulance transports- especially non-emergency transports. Federal Government, State Governments, you name it. “Big Brother” is watching what we do. The focus has increased dramatically […]
Insurance Coverage Doesn’t Mean Insurance Payment In the news… The local newspaper that serves the area surrounding the offices featured a story about a large hospital system in this area that is realizing significantly lower insurance payments as the effects of the Affordable Healthcare Act (a.k.a. “Obamacare”) kick in. “Just because there are more insured, […]
Taking Aim at System Abusers Past History- “Villainizing” the Service Providers If you follow the news regarding entitlements like we do, then you have probably noticed a growing trend toward what we consider to be the “villainizing” of healthcare providers that bill Medicare and Medicaid. Everyone seems to want to blame the ills of the […]
The Significance of One Hundred Late last week, we published our 100th blog post. It’s not something we were anxiously counting down to, nor waiting to celebrate—that’s just not our style. In fact, the “centennial” wasn’t even on our radar, and (quite honestly) we discovered it by happenstance. In realization of this milestone however, we did take some time to […]
Bill Extending Ambulance Bonus Payments, Delaying ICD-10 Passes Senate Last Minute Action With reimbursement cuts looming for the ambulance industry today, The Senate voted 64-35 in favor of the Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014 (H.R. 4302) late last evening effectively delaying those cuts. The bill now moves to President Obama’s desk for signing. […]
12 More Months/ICD-10 Delayed? Good News! Yesterday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a stop-gap measure to once again extend the ambulance bonus payments for another year. That’s really good news! Better News… But even better news was another part of the same bill passage. That part sets up a delay in the implementation of […]
Excellent Patient Care Provider? Prove It with Your Documentation! You’re the Best! In our opinion, everyone who’s ever taken a class and has become an EMS First Responder is the best! The question echoed by a very wise instructor one time, replays itself in the memory banks… “If not for you, then who?” Down through […]
The Window of Opportunity- Insurance Info and Signatures The Best Time With all the changes that are happening in the healthcare industry in the United States right now, more than ever it’s important that EMS field providers engage patients to collect demographic information, especially insurance information, in the field. The best time to obtain information […]
Let’s Take a Walk! Walking, Medical Necessity and Billing Join us today as we take a few minutes to explore medical necessity issues surrounding patients who can ambulate and how that fact alone may affect billing for an ambulance transport. Medical Necessity Any claim for payment billed for ambulance transport must meet a medical necessity […]
Hop Aboard the ICD-10 Train! It’s coming… By now, if you’re a regular reader of these blog posts, you are well aware that ICD-10 is coming. As a reminder, ICD-10 is short for the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision. You can certainly look at our blog archives and check in with our full explanation […]
