On Monday March 1st, a 21% Medicare physician payment cut went into legal effect. However, the Obama administration directed Medicare billing companies to stop processing claims for 10 business days in order to provide lawmakers with extra time to create a solution. On March 2, 2010, Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of…
On January 5, 2010, Governor Jennifer Granholm signed legislation that expands the chiropractic scope of practice in the state of Michigan. The expansion is designed to restore the scope of practice that existed prior to when the Public Health Code was rewritten. Chiropractors in Michigan may now treat neuromuscular, skeletal…
On February 19, Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm issued an Executive Order creating an independent Office of Health Services Inspector General (OHSIG) within the Department of Community Health. The Executive Order will become effective on October 1, 2010. Governor Granholm will have the responsibility to appoint the Health Services Inspector General.…
Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal filed suit against Health Net of Connecticut, Inc. for its alleged failure to secure private medical and financial information involving 446,000 Connecticut enrollees. The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act authorizes state attorneys general to bring actions on behalf of the…
February 22, 2010: In a report released last week, CMS revealed that Recovery Audit Contractors (RACs) referred two cases of potential fraud to the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (OIG) during the RAC Demonstration Program between March 2005 and March 2008. The published report states…
February 2010: In November 2009, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Medicare Physician Payment Reform Act of 2000, a bill that blocks a 21.2 percent physician-payment cut. Specifically, the bill would amend the Social Security Act to reform the Medicare Sustainable Growth Rates (SGR) payment system for physicians. The…
February 2010: In November 2009, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced changes to Medicare’s 2010 home health prospective payment system rates and modifications to the home health outlier policy. The rule became effective January 1, 2010. In recent years, CMS has become more attuned to the growth…
On February 5, 2010 the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) rescinded Change Request(CR) 6375, Transmittal 1873, dated December 11, 2009. The rescinded CR contained instructions regarding place of service (POS) and date of service (DOS) for the professional component (i.e. interpretation) and technical component of diagnostic tests. The…
On January 28, 2010, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced modified additional documentation request limits for institutional providers for the RAC program in FY 2010. The limits will be annually set by each RAC in accordance with this CMS guidance to create a per campus cap on…
On January 27, 2010, leaders of the American Dental Association (ADA), American Medical Association (AMA), American Osteopathic Association (AOA), and the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chairman Jon Leibovitz requesting that health professionals be excluded from the “Red Flags” Rule, a…