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.