The U.S. Office of Inspector General (OIG) has issued a "data snapshot" report about the relationship between Medicare beneficiaries and providers for telehealth services during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Chronic care management (CCM) is a valuable service to provide to patients that generates strong revenue for practices, and, as we recently discussed, is an "integral component" of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' (CMS) long-term patient care and coverage strategy. There may be no better time to add or grow a chronic care management program, especially with a reimbursement increase likely on the horizon.
One of the biggest care management challenges faced by modern daypractitioners is keeping patients focused on the immediate problem or reason for a visit. It's often easy to default into personal conversations with the patient as you connect as humans, but aimless conversations and off-topic detours can prove lethal to the typical practice schedule and mean certain essential aspects of the visit are overlooked or missed altogether, thus creating potential issues with reimbursement.
Remote patient monitoring (RPM) is gaining ground and securing its permanency within our evolving healthcare system. Ideal for patients who need close monitoring of their ongoing health concerns, RPM can play an essential role in keeping patients healthier for longer and avoiding the acute exacerbations that can land them in the emergency room or hospital.
Update: The 2022 Physician Fee Schedule final rule has delivered a significant increase in reimbursement for some chronic care management services and finalized the addition of new CCM CPT codes. To learn more about the substantial changes to CCM, watch our webinar covering some of the final rule's most significant telehealth and care management developments. Tucked deep within the 2022 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule proposed rule, presumably where it would be easy to miss, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has penned a love letter to chronic care management.
Telehealth has emerged as a viable and valuable delivery care model, with remote patient monitoring (RPM) as one of the most effective forms of virtual care. While not technically a new concept, RPM has been around since the late 1960s. Since then, it has expanded and morphed into the useful solution and service it is today while gaining acceptance from practitioners, patients, payers, and the federal government.
From its creation in 1984, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) has been a significant influence in healthcare, helping to recommend and determine the most beneficial and effective clinical preventive services. With the goal of creating a positive impact on the health of all Americans, the Preventive Services Task Force reviews and updates existing clinical preventive service guidelines and evaluates new preventive service recommendations. Through the diligent work of USPSTF, practitioners are armed with the most reliable and current clinical prevention tactics available, helping them to create a positive and lasting impact on the health and wellness of their patients. Want to learn more about providing and getting paid for preventive services? Check out our detailed guide! Or read on to learn about six things you should know about the Preventive Services Task Force.
This quick guide from Prevounce provides brief background information on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and then identifies ACA preventive services and the CPT codes that correspond with each service. Along with the CPT codes, the guide identifies patient eligibility for each service. When listing all associated CPT codes would be impractical for a guide of this nature, we have provided a link to a webpage that provides the CPT codes you should use. Want to learn more about providing and getting paid for preventive services? Check out our detailed guide!
In this blog, we'll discuss what some practitioners consider to be a pesky service: the Medicare wellness visit, also referred to as the Medicare annual wellness visit or AWV. For various reasons, the very phrase "Medicare wellness visit" can instill a sense of loathing and dread. Confusing and unclear language concerning Medicare wellness visit guidelines can leave practitioners confused, potentially resulting in missed income opportunities for practices and missed preventive care opportunities for patients. However, the downsides of skipping the Medicare wellness visit are worse: harm to your bottom line and potentially harm to your patients if they do not receive this essential service elsewhere.
Prevounce Health, creators of the Prevounce Care Coordination Platform, congratulates Alexandra (Ola) Baczynski, the recipient of the first Prevounce Preventive Health Graduate Scholarship.
