News

The Office of the National Coordinator of Health IT (ONC) and the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) released an updated security risk analysis tool September 6. The tool is designed to help small and medium-sized covered entities (CE) and business associates (BA) complete security risk analyses.

The New York State Psychiatric Institute (NYSPI) is notifying more than 20,000 research participants that their protected health information (PHI) may have been breached in a hacking incident earlier this year.

This week’s Medicare updates include the 2017annual Clotting Factor Furnishing Fee update; the 2017 HCPCS annual update reminder and more!

Q:  We are struggling with how to report the functional status codes that are required when a physical therapist provides therapy services post-operatively. We have a process for doing that for our “regular” therapy patients, but are struggling with how to implement this for the outpatient surgeries.

CMS wants your thoughts on its 2017 OPPS proposed changes. In various places in the proposed rule, CMS specifically asks providers to comment on the proposals. You may submit comments to the agency until September 6.

More than 400 medical records are unaccounted for at an Atlanta Iron Mountain storage facility.

Is there any reason why an inpatient-only procedure would be performed on an outpatient?

Providers often struggle with finding a solid definition of “not medically necessary.” Understanding the coverage definitions from the perspective of the payer, as well as how to stay current with guidelines, may help facilities improve billing practice when this common issue is involved.

Q: Is there any information yet on any new HCPCS codes for pharmacies that CMS may be considering for the October OPPS update?

This week’s Medicare updates include coding revisions to NCDs; updated home health agency beneficiary notices; and more!