Monthly Archives: December 2018
Ring In the New Year with New Medicare Rules
Change your calendars! 2019 is here!
2019 is the 19th year of the 21st century, and the 10th and last year of the 2010s decade. Next we know it’ll be 2020.
Few fun facts:
- January 7th is my birthday. And no, you may not ask my age.
- In February 2019, Nigeria will elect a new president.
- In June the Women’s World Cup will be held in France.
- November 5, 2019, USA will have our next election. Three Governor races will occur.
What else do we have in store for 2019? There are a TON of changes getting implemented for Medicare in 2019.
Hospital Prices Go Public
For starters, hospital prices will go public. Prices hospitals charge for their services will all go online Jan. 1 under a new federal requirement. There is a question as to how up-to-date the information will be. For example, a hospital publishes its prices for a Cesarian Section on January 1, 2019. Will that price be good on December 1, 2019? According to the rule, hospitals will be required to update the information annually or “more often as appropriate.”
“More often as appropriate” is not defined and upon reading it, I envision litigation arising between hospitals and patients bickering over increased rates but were not updated on the public site “more often as appropriate.” This recently created requirement for hospitals to publish its rates “more often as appropriate” will also create unfamiliar penalties for hospitals to face. Because whenever there is a rule, there are those who break them. Just ask CMS.
Skilled Nursing Facility Value-Based Purchasing Program (SNF VBP) Is Implemented
Skilled nursing facilities (SNF) will be penalized or rewarded on an annual basis depending on the SNFs’ performance, which is judged on a “hospital readmissions measure” during a performance period. The rule aims to improve quality of care and lower the number of elderly patients repeatedly readmitted to hospitals. The Medicare law that was implemented in October 2018 will be enforced in 2019.
Basically, all SNFs will receive a “performance score” annually based on performance, which is calculated by comparing data from years prior. The scores range from 0 – 100. But what if you disagree with your score? Take my word for it, when the 2019 scores roll in, there will be many an unhappy SNFs. Fair scoring, correct auditing, and objective reviews are not in Medicare auditors’ bailiwick.
Expansion of Telehealth
Telehealth benefits are limited to services available under Medicare Part B that are clinically appropriate to be administered through telecommunications and e-technology. For 2019, a proposed rule creates three, new, “virtual,” CPT codes that do not have the same restrictions as the current, “traditional” telehealth definition. Now CMS provides reimbursement for non-office visits through telehealth services, but only if the patients present physically at an “originating site,” which only includes physician offices, hospitals, and other qualified health care centers. This prevents providers from consulting with their patients while they are at their home. The brand-new, 2019 CPT codes would allow telehealth to patients in homes.
Word of caution, my friends… Do not cross the streams.
- CPT #1 – Telephone conference for established patients only; video not required
- CPT #2 – Review of selfies of patient to determine whether office visit is needed; established patients only
- CPT #3 – Consult with a specialist or colleague for advice without requiring a specialist visit; patient’s consent required.
These are not the only developments in Medicare in 2019. But these are some highlights. Here is wishing you and yours a very happy New Year, and thank you for reading my blog because if you are reading this then you read the whole blog.
Once You STOP Accepting Medicaid/Care, How Much Time Has to Pass to Know You Will Not Be Audited? (For Past Nitpicking Documentation Errors)
I had a client, a dentist, ask me today how long does he have to wait until he need not worry about government, regulatory audits after he decides to not accept Medicare or Medicaid any more. It made me sad. It made me remember the blog that I wrote back in 2013 about the shortage of dentists that accept Medicaid. But who can blame him? With all the regulatory, red tape, low reimbursement rates, and constant headache of audits, who would want to accept Medicare or Medicaid, unless you are Mother Teresa…who – fun fact – vowed to live in poverty, but raised more money than any Catholic in the history of the recorded world.
What use is a Medicaid card if no one accepts Medicaid? It’s as useful as our appendix, which I lost in 1990 and have never missed it since, except for the scar when I wear a bikini. A Medicaid card may be as useful as me with a power drill. Or exercising lately since my leg has been broken…
The answer to the question of how long has to pass before breathing easily once you make the decision to refuse Medicaid or Medicare? – It depends. Isn’t that the answer whenever it comes to the law?
By Whom and Why You Are Being Investigated Matters
If you are being investigated for fraud, then 6 years.
If you are being investigated by a RAC audit, 3 years.
If you are being investigated by some “non-RAC entity,” then it however many years they want unless you have a lawyer.
If being investigated under the False Claims Act, you have 6 – 10 years, depending on the circumstances.
If investigated by MICs, generally, there is a 5-year, look-back period.
ZPICS have no particular look-back period, but with a good attorney, reasonableness can be argued. How can you be audited once you are no longer liable to maintain the records?
The CERT program is limited by the same fiscal year.
The Alternative: Self-Disclosure (Hint – This Is In Your Favor)
If you realized that you made an oops on your own, you have 60-days. The 60-day repayment rule was implemented by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”), effective March 14, 2016, to clarify health care providers’ obligations to investigate, report, and refund identified overpayments under the Affordable Care Act (“ACA”).
Notably, CMS specifically stated in the final rule that it only applies to traditional Medicare overpayments for Medicare Part A and B services, and does not apply to Medicaid overpayments. However, most States have since legislated similar statutes to mimic Medicare rules (but there are arguments to be made in courts of law to distinguish between Medicare and Medicaid).
Another NCTracks Debacle? Enter NC HealthConnex – A Whole New Computer System To Potentially Screw Up
North Carolina is mandating that health care providers link with all other health care providers. HIPAA be damned! Just another hoop to jump through in order to get paid by Medicaid – as if it isn’t hard enough!
If you do not comply and link your health care practice to NC HealthConnex by June 1, 2019, you could lose your Medicaid contract.
“As North Carolina moves into data-driven, value-based health care, the NC HIEA is working to modernize the state-designated health information exchange, now called NC HealthConnex.” About NC HealthConnex website.
NC HIEA = NC Health Information Exchange Authority (NC HIEA) and created by N.C. Gen. Stat. § 90-414.7. “North Carolina Health Information Exchange Authority.”
North Carolina state law mandates that all health care providers who receive any State funds, which would include Medicaid, HealthChoice and the State Health Plan, must connect and submit patient demographic and clinical data to NC HealthConnex by June 1, 2019. The process could take 12 to 18 months. So you better get going. Move it or lose it, literally. If you do not comply, you can lose your license to participate in state-funded programs, including Medicaid.
If you go to the NC Health Information Exchange Authority (NC HIEA) website article, entitled, “NC HealthConnex Participant Base Continues to Grow,” you will see the following:
I highlighted the Session Law that, according to the above, requires that health care providers who receive state funds must connect to NC HealthConnex. See above. However, when you actually read Session Law 2017-57, it is untrue that Session Law 2017-57 mandates that health care providers who receive state funds must connect to NC HealthConnex.
If you follow the citation by NC HIEA (above), you will see that buried in Session Law 2017-57, the 2017 Appropriations Bill, is a clause that states:
“SECTION 11A.8.(e) Of the funds appropriated in this act to the Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Central Management and Support, Office of Rural Health, for the Community Health Grant Program, the sum of up to one hundred fifty thousand dollars ($150,000) in recurring funds for each fiscal year of the 2017‑2019 fiscal biennium shall be used to match federal funds to provide to safety net providers eligible to participate in the Community Health Grant Program, through the Rural Health Technology Team, ongoing training and technical assistance with respect to health information technology, the adoption of electronic health records, and the establishment of connectivity to the State’s health information exchange network known as NC HealthConnex.”
As you can plainly read, this clause only allots funds to provide training and assistance to providers eligible to participate in the Community Health Grant Program. The above clause certainly does not mandate that Healthcare providers who receive state funds connect to NC HealthConnex.
Session Law 2017-57, only mandates $150,000 for training and assistance for HealthConnex.
So what is the legal statute that mandates health care providers who receive state funds must connect to NC HealthConnex?
Ok, bear with me. Here’s where it gets complex.
A law was passed in 2015, which created the North Carolina Health Information Exchange Authority (NC HIEA). NC HIEA is a sub agency of the North Carolina Department of Information Technology (NC DIT) Government Data Analytic Center. NC HIEA operates the NC HealthConnex. The State CIO maintains the responsibility if the NC HealthConnex.
Supposedly, that 2015 law mandates that health care providers who receive state funds must connect to NC HealthConnex…
I read it. You can click on the link here. This subsection is the only section that I would deem apropos to health care providers accepting State funding:
“In consultation with the Advisory Board, develop a strategic plan for achieving statewide participation in the HIE Network by all hospitals and health care providers licensed in this State.”
What part of the above clause states that health care providers are MANDATED to participate? So, please, if any of my readers actually know which law mandates provider participation, please forward to me. Because my question is – Is participation REALLY mandated? Will providers seriously lose their reimbursement rights for services rendered for failing to participate in NC HealthConnex?? Because I see multiple violations of federal law with this requirement, including HIPAA and due process.
HealthConnex can link your practice to it if you use the following EHR programs:
- Ace Health Solutions
- Allscripts
- Amazing Charts/Harris Healthcare Company
- Aprima
- Athena Health
- AYM Technologies
- Casehandler
- Centricity
- Cerner
- CureMD
- DAS Health/Aprima
- eClinicalWorks
- eMD
- eMed Solutions, LLC
- EPIC
- Evident- Thrive
- Greenway
- ICANotes Behavioral Health EHR
- ICAN Solutions, Inc
- Integrity/Checkpoint
- Kaleidacare
- Lauris Online
- McKesson Practice Partners
- Medical Transcription Billing Corporation
- Medinformatix
- Meditab Software, Inc.
- Meditech
- Mediware-Alphaflex
- MTBC
- MicroMD
- Netsmart
- NextGen
- Office Ally
- Office Practicum
- Oncelogix Sharenote
- Patagonia Health
- Physician’s Computer Company (PCC)
- PIMSY
- Practice Fusion Cloud
- Praxis
- PrognoCIS
- PsyTech Solutions, Inc.
- Qualifacts – Carelogic
- Radysans
- Reli Med Solutions
- SET-Works
- SRS
- The Echo Group
- Therap
- Trimed Tech
- Valant
- Waiting Room Solutions
The law also requires:
- Hospitals as defined by G.S. 131E-176(13), physicians licensed to practice under Article 1 of Chapter 90 of the General Statutes, physician assistants as defined in 21 NCAC 32S .0201, and nurse practitioners as defined in 21 NCAC 36 .0801 who provide Medicaid services and who have an electronic health record system shall connect by June 1, 2018.
- All other providers of Medicaid and state-funded services shall connect by June 1, 2019. See changes in 2018 Session Law below.
- Prepaid Health Plans (PHPs), as defined in S.L. 2015-245, will be required to connect to the HIE per their contracts with the NC Division of Health Benefits (DHB). Clarifies that PHPs are required to submit encounter and claims data by the commencement of the contract with NC DHB.
- Clarifies that Local Management Entities/Managed Care Organizations (LMEs/MCOs) are required to submit encounter and claims data by June 1, 2020.
New from the 2018 Legislative Short Session, NCSL 2018-41:
- Dentists and ambulatory surgical centers are required to submit clinical and demographic data by June 1, 2021.
- Pharmacies are required to submit claims data pertaining to State services once per day by June 1, 2021, using pharmacy industry standardized formats.
To meet the state’s mandate, a Medicaid provider is “connected” when its clinical and demographic information pertaining to services paid for by Medicaid and other State-funded health care funds are being sent to NC HealthConnex, at least twice daily—either through a direct connection or via a hub (i.e., a larger system with which it participates, another regional HIE with which it participates or an EHR vendor). Participation agreements signed with the designated entity would need to list all affiliate connections.
Let’s just wait and see how this computer system turns out. Hopefully we don’t have a second rendition of NCTracks. We all know how well that turned out. See blog and blog.
Medicaid participation continues to get more and more complicated. Remember the day when you could write a service note with a pen? That was so much cheaper than investing in computers and software. When did it get so expensive to provide health care to the most needy?
