Subscribe Now
 Already a subscriber? Log-in!
This biweekly newsletter provides concise, independent coverage and analysis of fast-breaking lab, pathology, blood banking, imaging and diagnostic radiology news from the Nation's Capital.
You'll find out about:
- Medicare payment and policy directives Billing guidelines and coding changes for diagnostic facilities
- CLIA & MQSA regulatory mandates, changes and interpretations
- Congressional actions & legislative initiatives
- Federal compliance requirements
- OIG anti-fraud initiatives
- Stark self-referral prohibitions
Plus you will get other legal news regarding FDA oversight of in vitro diagnostics, blood banks, and radiological devices OSHA, NRC, and state safety standards.
|
|
|
 |
 | NIR June 9, 2008 (full PDF issue) |
| How CMS will assign labs, other providers to new MAC claims processing system
Medicare travel allowance policy: A quick Q&A guide—see Focus
Physician self-referral rules: CMS proposes new ‘stand in the shoes’ provisions impacting compensation: An analysis by attorney Robert E. Mazer
Medicare physician fee fix due soon on the Senate floor, other lab/pathology priorities lobby to ride along
NPI Update: Medicare fee-for-service compliance with NPI-only transactions, as of May 23, better than expected, with only scattered glitches, CMS reports
Full Article |
| CDC Report Takes a New Look at the Status of U.S. Lab Medicine |
| A new report, commissioned by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and released late last month, presents an overview of key factors shaping clinical laboratory medicine throughout the United States, including changes needed in Medicare reimbursement and pathology quality performance.
Full Article |
| CMS to Increase Medicare Travel Allowance on June 30 |
| In welcome news to clinical laboratories, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has instructed its contractors to implement an increase of 20 cents in the travel allowance for collecting specimens from nursing home and homebound beneficiaries as of June 30.
Full Article |
| CMS Spells Out Policy on Assigning Providers to MACs |
| As part of its national rollout of a new Medicare Administrative Contractor (MAC) system for processing claims under Parts A and B, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has issued a transmittal detailing how it intends to assign clinical laboratories, pathologists, and other health care providers to these new entities.
Full Article |
| A Quick Guide to Medicare Travel Allowance Policy |
| What is Medicare’s travel allowance?
It is payment to cover the estimated travel costs when collecting specimens from nursing home and homebound Medicare beneficiaries as well as the expenses for trained personnel who travel to collect a sample.
Full Article |
| CMS Takes Another Look at Stark ‘Stand in the Shoes’ Rules |
| Editor’s Note: The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is proposing to revisit the controversial "stand in the shoes" provisions that apply to direct and indirect compensation arrangements under the Stark physician self-referral rules. The agency called for comment, to June 13, on this and several other Stark modifications in its proposed rule for the fiscal 2009 inpatient prospective payment system, issued April 30. For an analysis of the "stand in the shoes" proposal, NIR turned to attorney Robert E. Mazer, with Ober/Kaler in Baltimore, Md., who commented as follows:
Full Article |
| NPI Update |
| The Medicare fee-for-service switch to National Provider Identifier-only transactions, required as of May 23, has gone pretty well, CMS reported June 2. More than 90 percent of claims are NPI-compliant, while some Medicare contractors report 100 percent compliance.
Full Article |
| Senate to Soon Take Up Medicare Physician Fee Fix |
| Scheduled cuts in Medicare payments to physicians would be blocked for 18 months, and physicians would get a 0.5 percent increase in 2009, under provisions likely to be part of Medicare legislation being developed by Senate Finance Committee Democrats, according to a June 2 outline of the bill. Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) said he aims to bring the measure to the Senate floor in a week or so. Unless Congress acts, Medicare physician fees are slated to be cut by 10.6 percent under the program’s Sustainable Growth Rate formula, starting July 1.
Full Article |
|
|
Please choose an archived issue to view newsletter table of contents above
|
|
