Sneaky Sneak!
Sneaky Sneak!nI am seeing some pretty sneaky fee schedules lately! If you cannot explain a fee schedule on the way up the elevator between two floors of your building, it is either too complicated to know if your being paid properly or so vague that you won’t be.nnSome new carriers are popping up to take on older programs or member groups, very often these out of state payers first start off on fishing expeditions trying to catch those who don’t know, don’t pay attention or don’t care. Don’t be one of them!nStay tuned for more Todd’s Tips!nn
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About R. Todd Welter • MS, CPCnFounder and President of Welter Healthcare Partners
nMr. Welter has over 25 years of healthcare industry experience assisting physicians and other providers, hospitals and other facilities with the business side of medicine. Through strategic planning and analysis, Mr. Welter’s main focus is to strategically increase revenues and profitability in this radically changing health care environment. Mr. Welter has a Masters Degree in Organizational Leadership from Regis University in Denver where he has had an appointment as affiliate faculty in the School for Professional Studies for over ten years. In addition, Mr. Welter holds a faculty appointment at the University of Denver’s University College. In the Health Care Leadership program he teaches Macro Economics in Health Care and Innovative Strategies and Change in Health Care to graduate students.
The Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing made the decision to postpone the Go Live date of:n
The 2017 Medicare Part B Physician’s Fee Schedules have been posted to the Novitas Solutions website. Downloads are available in Adobe PDF, Microsoft Excel, and Plain Text formats. The Code Search feature will not have 2017 fees loaded until the first week of January, 2017.nn
It doesn’t matter who does the math, Thomas: Amendment 69 would be a disaster for Colorado taxpayers. This week the Tax Foundation, an independent research organization, released a report on the impacts of passing ColoradoCare into law — and it’s as bad as we thought.nnHere are some of the Tax Foundation’s findings:n
Bill Summaryn Colorado Stat. 10-16-123 (new rev. eff. 1/1/17)nnHOUSE SPONSORSHIPn Buck and Ginal,n SENATE SPONSORSHIPn Kefalas and Martinez Humenik,nnUnder current law, health benefit plans issued, amended, or renewed in this state cannot require in-person health care delivery for a person covered under the plan who resides in a county with 150,000 or fewer residents if the care can be appropriately delivered through telemedicine and the county has the technology necessary for care delivery via telemedicine.nnStarting January 1, 2016, the bill removes the population restrictions and precludes a health benefit plan from requiring in-person care delivery when telemedicine is appropriate, regardless of the geographic location of the health care provider and the recipient of care. A provider need not demonstrate that a barrier to in-person care exists for coverage of telemedicine under a health benefit plan to apply.nnIn addition, carriers:nn! Must reimburse providers who deliver care through telemedicine on the same basis that the carrier is responsible for coverage of services delivered in person;n! Cannot charge deductible, copayment, or coinsurance amounts that are not equally imposed on all terms and services covered under the health benefit plan; andn! Cannot impose an annual or lifetime dollar maximum that applies separately to telemedicine services.
Reminder, ACA Section 1557 Compliance Began Sunday, October 16th!nnAll practices – regardless of practice size – are required to post the non-discrimination notice and taglines. Follow theses easy steps to ensure your practice is compliant.nnPost Notice of Nondiscriminationn-