Context4 Healthcare Is Seeking Participants for Annual CodeLink Panel Members

Context4 Healthcare is seeking to add to its CodeLink product panel members and has put out a call for participants. Context is seeking physicians, nurses, medical coders and billing professionals. We are looking for panel members from all physician specialties and healthcare professionals utilizing CPT and ICD codes.

As a panel member, you will provide us with feedback on the most utilized CPT and ICD codes and the related linkages of those codes.

Participants will sign a simple contract and receive a single user license of CodeLink upon completion of our annual questionnaire and a brief phone interview. If you participate per the terms of our agreement, you'll get access to CodeLink our award winning medical coding and billing software.

If you are interested in becoming a panel member and filling out our annual questionnaire regarding the new 2011 CPT and ICD codes, please email Emilia Burlasz at emilia.burlasz@context4healthcare.com.

Context's ICD-10-CM Codes with Short & Medium Descriptions

Context4 Healthcare has released ICD-10-CM codes with short and medium descriptions and is offering a special to save 10% on these data files by contacting us prior to October 1st, 2010.

BC Advantage Article - Audit proof your practice: Be prepared for RACs and MICs

Context4 Healthcare's Medical Director Dr. Klasa in the current issue of BC Advantage discusses preparations for RACs and MICs in the article titled, Audit proof your practice: Be prepared for RACs and MICs.

Medicare Physician Pay Cut Fix

President Obama signed the bill passed by Congress into law today that replaces the Medicare Physician pay cut of 21.2% with a pay raise of 2.2% through November.

CMS Extends Medicare Claim Hold Until June 18th

CMS will continue to hold the processing of Medicare claims until June 18 to allow for additional time for Congressional action on the Physician pay cuts that went into effect on June 1.

CMS Holds June Medicare Claims

CMS has instructed its claims processing contractors to hold Medicare claims submitted on or after June 1st for 10 business day with the expectation that Congress will restore the Physician Fee cut that went into effect on June 1st.

Medicare Physician Fee Cut Deadline Approaching

The May 31st deadline is fast approaching again for the Medicare Physician Fee cut. The proposed fee cut of 21.3% has been delayed several times due to Congress' intervention. With Congress recessing on Monday, May 31st for Memorial Day, the deadline could be moved up to May 28. Stay tuned.

Context4 Healthcare Releases New Case Study

Context4 Healthcare released a new Case Study today detailing how MedPro reduced payor denials by nearly 60% using Context4 Healthcare's ClaimsEditor.

http://www.context4healthcare.com/pdf/MedPro_Solutions_Case_Study.pdf

Context4 Healthcare Amazon Storefront Now Open!

Look for us on Amazon for Physician Fees available per physician specialty.

Context4 Healthcare Will Release Short/Medium ICD-10-CM Descriptors on August 1st, 2010

Context4 Healthcare will release short and medium ICD-10-CM descriptors on August 1st, 2010. http://www.context4healthcare.com/pdf/ICD_10_abbreviation_data_sheet.pdf

Official - Physician Pay Cut Delayed Until June 1, 2010

President Obama signed into law the Continuing Extension Act of 2010, which delays the Medicare Physician fee cut till June 1, 2010. The law is retroactive to April 1, 2010. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has instructed Medicare contractors to begin processing claims being previously held by CMS.

Physician Pay Cut Pushed Back Till June 1, 2010

The Senate passed a legislation today that pushes back the Medicare Physician fee cuts till June 1, 2010. The House has previously passed another bill but will now have to vote on this legislation for it to be approved.

CMS Holds Physician Claims For 10 Days in April

The Senate bill extending the Medicare 21% Physician pay cut till October, 2010 was not acted upon by the House and as a result the Physician pay cut is scheduled to take effect April 1, 2010. Since Congress left for a two-week recess without taking further action, CMS has stepped in by holding claims on or after April 1 for the first 10 business days buying physicians more time. If Congress does not act by April 15, CMS will start processing claims.

ICD-10 Timetable - Where Does Your Organization Stand?

There is much discussion about the technological demands necessary to prepare for ICD-10-CM and ICD-10-PCS. Dr. Marge Klasa, Medical Director of Context4 Healthcare, talks about the importance of preparing early for the ICD-10-CM and ICD-10-PCS implementation in the March 29th issue of For The Record.

Context4 Healthcare, Inc. Launches ClaimsEditor® 3.0

Web-based solution delivers critical resources to ensure healthcare providers protect their revenue stream while remaining compliant with rapidly changing rules and regulations

Naperville, IL - March 23, 2010 - Context4 Healthcare, Inc., a leading provider of automated technology solutions for reimbursement challenges in the healthcare industry, today announced the release of ClaimsEditor 3.0. This advanced Software as a Solution (SaaS) will play an instrumental role across the healthcare industry by ensuring that claims are properly coded, and that they are submitted in accordance with applicable Medicare, Medicaid, and third-party payer rules and regulations.

In today's uncertain economic climate with reimbursement tighter than ever and more challenges on the horizon, it is imperative that claims are coded - and therefore, paid - properly, notes Mark Earles, CEO of Context. "Providers realize how vital it is that claims fully reflect the care they deliver, are submitted once and then paid in a timely manner."

Error-ridden claims create significant headaches for provider organizations, he adds. "Simply put, problem claims are costly - on average, $25 per re-submission. This means that providers must invest additional time and staff effort in researching and reworking denials in order to be reimbursed. Ultimately, this effort erodes the practice's margins."

Improperly paid claims represent a significant and growing concern for provider organizations large and small, agrees Richelle White, CMPE, CPC of MedPro Solutions, LLC, a Pensacola, Fla. -based outsourced billing service that has used Context4 Healthcare's ClaimsEditor software since 1999. "We have been delighted with the results we've achieved with ClaimsEditor on behalf of the providers we serve. It's an effective tool that helps us stay abreast of changing payer policies so we can ensure that our clients receive the reimbursement they have earned."

Earles notes that other providers have achieved significant results with ClaimsEditor as well. "We have clients tell us their Medicare denial rate drops below 1% after they implement ClaimsEditor into their revenue cycle management process."

ClaimsEditor 3.0 relies upon the most advanced technology to streamline the coding and billing process. The new release includes new dashboard monitoring, an enhanced user interface, refined displays of CMS-1500 and UB-04 claims, stringent HIPAA compliance, and XML exporting capabilities for downloading corrected results to the practice billing system. The unique editing, claims correction, reporting and workflow management capabilities in the ClaimsEditor 3.0 deliver significant cost and compliance advantages to provider organizations large or small.

The release continues Context's successful development efforts utilizing Software as a Service (SaaS) applications. Through a secure socket layer (SSL), Context Web applications improve upon the value delivered by their progenitors - lower administrative costs, improved regulatory compliance and reduced payment delays. With ClaimsEditor 3.0, users also avoid both hardware and integration costs.

ClaimsEditor® Online Demo Video

This software demo video was produced using Camtasia Studio.

Senate Vote Delays Medicare Physician Pay Cut Until October 1, 2010

The Senate voted today to approve a $138 billion bill that prevents the Medicare physician fee cuts until October 1, 2010. The bill also extends Medicaid, COBRA and unemployment benefits.

CMS Transmittal Links Working

The CMS Transmittal links are now working.

CMS Transmittal Links Broken

Context4 Healthcare and several third party organizations have alerted CMS that their links to recent transmittals are broken. Hopefully, CMS will resolve this issue soon.

Temporary Extension Act Delays Medicare Physician Payment Cuts Till April 1, 2010

In a Statement, the White House Press Secretary announced that the President signed the Temporary Extension Act of 2010 (H.R.4691) into law on March 2, 2010 which delays the scheduled 21.2 percent Medicare payment reduction for physician services until April 1, 2010.
This act also includes a provision extending the therapy cap exceptions process through March 31, 2010, which the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008 extended the exception process through December 31, 2009.

New Senate Bill Would Postpone Physician Cuts Till October 1

Senate Democrats introduced another bill designed to temporarily spare physicians the 21.2% Medicare pay cut that took effect March 1 on account of partisan gridlock in Congress last week. The bill, which also extends expired unemployment benefits, subsidies for health insurance premiums, and various tax breaks, would postpone the effective date of the massive cut to October 1, 2010.

No Temporary Measure to Halt Medicare Physician Fee Reduction

Senate does not move to pass a temporary measure to planned Medicare fee reductions therefore physicians will face a 21.2% pay cut on March 1, 2010.

March 1st Deadline For Medicare Physician 21.2% Fee Cut Is Almost Here....Again

Another Medicare SGR (Sustained Growth Rate) physician fee schedule cut deadline is almost here. This reduction in Medicare payments for physician services continues to be repeatedly postponed at the last minute year after year. With each year's delay, the amount of the cut has grown to 21.2% for 2010. While heavy lobbying by physician groups repeatedly causes Congress to address the fee cut by delaying it, it never results in addressing the SGR legislation that fuels it. Last November, a permanent fix was passed in the House but died in the Senate.

So once again, as the January 1 deadline approached in December, a last minute two month delay (until March 1) was buried within a Defense Appropriations bill. Earlier this month, another delay (until October 1) was put into a proposed $85 billion jobs creation bill (Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment Act), but subsequent political wrangling caused this bill's scope to reduced to $15 billion and the SGR delay was removed.

This month, both the AMA, AAFP, and other physician groups have turned up their lobbying efforts again. Another delay? As AAFP president President Lori Heim, M.D stated "It is a travesty that Congress continues to kick this can down the road and doesn't address the underlying issue." Stay tuned.

ClaimsEditor RAC Audit Solution Demo Video

This software demo video was produced using Camtasia Studio.

Context4 Healthcare February Newsletter Released

February Context4 Healthcare Newsletter released. Discussing such topics as the ICD-10 transition, industry news, and product updates.

http://www.context4healthcare.com/pdf/Newsletter_February_2010.pdf

DME Provider Survey

Context4 Healthcare would like to assess the data and technology needs of DME Providers. Please take our survey at the link below.


http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/?p=WEB22A6797KXNH

Updated Draft 2010 ICD-10-CM Files Released By CMS and CDC

A major update was released this week by both CMS (ICD-10-PCS which is the procedure portion) and the CDC (ICD-9-CM which is the diagnosis portion) updating their previous draft versions. On the diagnosis side, 1,982 new codes were added, 983 codes deleted and 1,029 codes revised. For the procedure codes, there are 2,193 new codes, 2,823 codes deleted, and 737 codes revised. While this sounds like a lot, it’s actually just a small percentage of the approximately 70,000 codes contained in each of the two groups of codes.

In addition, the GEM files (used for mapping ICD-9-CM to/from ICD-10-CM/PCS) have also been updated along with revised 2010 Coding Guidelines, Indexes, Drug Tables, Reference Manuals and updated mapping for MSDRG reimbursement. It is anticipated that these files will now continue to be updated annually until the final implementation target date of 10/1/2013.

Context4 Healthcare has the complete ICD-10-CM and ICD-10-PCS code set files (codes and complete descriptions) available in data friendly file formats.

Context4 Healthcare January DME Newsletter

Context4 Healthcare January newsletter released focusing on DME:

http://www.context4healthcare.com/pdf/Newsletter_January_2010.pdf

Context4 Healthcare, Inc. Emerges as Leading Provider of Healthcare UCR Fee Databases

Naperville, IL - Jan. 5, 2010 - Context4 Healthcare, Inc., (Context) which provides technology solutions for reimbursement challenges in the healthcare industry announced today that its recently revised and enhanced usual, customary and reasonable fee (UCR) databases are poised to support providers and payors as they respond to increasing scrutiny of out-of-network rates for medical claims.

"Over the past few years, the healthcare industry has experienced a great deal of turmoil related to the reliability of UCR fee databases available to help establish appropriate rates," notes Mark Earles, CEO of Context4 Healthcare. "We anticipate that this trend will only grow in upcoming months, with increased claims review and audit activity."

Because over one billion new charge points are added annually, Context products are considered to be the most reliable UCR Fee Databases on the market today. "Payors and providers now have access to a highly defensible, up-to-date source of healthcare fee data, which can assist them in setting fair and reasonable rates," he says.

Development of comprehensive UCR databases like those offered by Context addresses escalating concerns. Often, even within the same community, one provider will charge one fee for a defined service while another may charge three times that rate. "It's been difficult at times to determine what charge is most appropriate for any given service in any given geographic area," Earles points out.

Context also markets this UCR fee data to providers in the form of Custom Physician Fee Reports, as it has since 1994. Providers can access fee data specific to their speciality in any three-digit ZIP code region of the United States.

Earles notes that UCR data is essential to virtually all segments of the healthcare marketplace. "The information assists third-party administrators and payor organizations in ensuring that submitted provider charges are reasonable. In addition, providers can use the Custom Physician Fee Reports as reference material when negotiating contracts with payors or to set appropriate charges for their services. Even healthcare consultants rely upon our fee data for work with their clients."

Context4 Healthcare UCR fee methodology was developed by a team of healthcare experts, mathematicians and statisticians, and has been updated and revised bi-annually over the past 15 years using billions of actual submitted provider charges from throughout the United States. The databases have been widely used and accepted by both payors and providers in all 50 states.

"Although we strongly believe that both payors and provider organizations should use multiple reference tools to set their fee schedules and reimbursement rates, we are confident that Context provides users with highly specific and cost-effective fee management solutions that are credible and defensible," Earles adds.