By: Jeff Cohen
When new healthcare regs come out, we all get excited. “What sort of nuggets will I find that could be useful?” Sometimes the regs have useful things and sometimes, they’re just disappointing and frustrating. The proposed changes to the 2016 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule are a mixed bag. Allow me to illustrate:
The incident to rules may be changed to require only the ordering physician to supervise the performance of the service. Currently, any physician in a group practice could supervise the performance of an incident to service (which allows the practice to bill for the service as though it had been performed by the ordering physician);
Qualified telemedicine services that are furnished via an interactive telecom system can be furnished by a physician or authorized practitioner for an additional list of services, including CRNAs. This is a big change that expands the list of authorized providers;
The feds propose to characterize certain Stark Law violations as “technical,” which means they pose no financial risk to the Medicare program. Examples include unsigned or expired agreements;Continue reading
