Facilities and Payment- Medicare Rules Destination Facility Our billing office often receives questions from our clients regarding facilities as an origin yet mostly a destination for transport. For the purpose of this discussion we are going to focus on the destination. A facility or institution is defined as a hospital or skilled nursing home as […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 of the Social Security Act […]
Medicare for All? Feel the Burn After two weeks of the major party political conventions, we can truthfully say we “feel the burn!” Hold on…we’re not taking political sides. Note that it’s “burn” and not “Bern” that we feel, as in “burn out.” Our presidential campaigns in the United States are far too long. After […]
Properly Executing the Medicare ABN-Part I Misunderstood One of the most misunderstood puzzle pieces of ambulance billing is the Medicare Advance Beneficiary Notice of Noncoverage (ABN). As we work together with our contracted EMS agency clients, we find that EMS administrators and providers alike are very confused about the when and how to use this […]
Billing for Ambulance Scenarios Involving Death Solemn Subject This week we address a rather solemn subject. While none of us care to admit it, there are times when our best life-saving efforts are unable to change the course of events and our patients succumb due to medical emergencies and/or trauma scenarios. It’s sad for both […]
