Railroad Medicare Cites 32.6% Error Rate for Second Quarter of FY 2017 Review Complete Yesterday, Palmetto GBA, the Medicare Administrative Contractor for the Railroad Medicare program, announced that they have completed their widespread review of BLS Non-Emergency ambulance service claims from January through March of 2017. This comprises their announced review for the Second Quarter […]
Flu-Like Symptoms- How to Document? Spring? Spring has sprung…or has it? Given that we just experienced a major east coast winter snow storm just two weeks ago with New England about to get hammered again, it appears that Mother Nature is a bit confused. The Flu! Because Mother Nature is confused we see a lingering […]
Sharpening Documentation Skills Using Hands-On Training How will they learn? The Apostle Paul wrote a letter to the early church in Rome to encourage the early first-century believers to actively share their faith with others. He used a series of questions to make his point. “But how can they call on him to save them […]
Clear. Clinical. Documentation. CMS Three words with impactful meaning anchor our discussion today. The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) sets the definition of medical necessity of an ambulance patient that all of us in the ambulance billing industry strictly adhere to. The definition centers on the clinical requirement “where the use of other methods […]
“But we’ve always done it that way!” Don’t walk…run! Probably the most dangerous phrase for an EMS system and especially an ambulance billing program is the phrase… “But we’ve always done it that way!” In today’s world, if your EMS agency is going to be successful and remain insulated from big trouble make a point […]
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 […]
Helping Your EMS Billing Program Achieve Success in 2017 Happy New Year! The Holidays are over and it’s back to work. Happy New Year to everyone in EMS land. Before we get too far into the new year, let’s pause for a moment and highlight some relatively easy ways you can help your EMS Billing […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
