PMB Blog

The COVID-19 public health emergency and national emergency declarations are set to expire on May 11. The U.S. COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE) and national emergency declarations—both of which have been in place since January and March of 2020, respectively—will expire on May 11, 2023, the White House announced. These declarations have allowed the U.S.…

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), on behalf of, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), issued the proposed rule, “Adoption of Standards for Health Care Attachments Transactions and Electronic Signatures, and Modification to Referral Certification and Authorization Transaction Standard (CMS-0053-P).” If finalized, the proposed rule, would adopt standards for “health…

Article Highlights *** One of the newest programs administered by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is designed to use the latest technology to help improve the quality of care for Medicare beneficiaries, especially individuals with chronic conditions. This new program, Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM), was introduced by CMS in 2018 as a…

Article Highlights *** The schedule for a busy physician can be daunting to navigate on a daily basis. Not only are you tasked with providing a high level of care to your patients throughout the day, but you also need to be mindful of whether your office is supporting billings so that your practice receives…

Article Highlights More than half of denied claims are not re-worked, leaving thousands of dollars on the table. Optimizing front office practices can help with denial management. Outsourcing medical billing to a denial management company can help physicians collect every owed dollar. *** Physicians often lose significant amounts of revenue on a daily, monthly, and…

Article Highlights Millions of dollars are wasted every month on inefficient revenue cycle management. Physicians can improve revenue cycle management by outsourcing processes. Precision Medical Billing (PMB) has separated ourselves by driving process improvements to optimize revenue collections for our clients. *** Every month, physicians throughout the U.S. waste millions of dollars because of poor…

Article Highlights Physicians are working through financial stress running their practice. Build out your physician billing KPIs to monitor the health of the practice. Outsource medical billing to PMB to collect all revenue you are entitled to. *** Physicians across the U.S. have dealt with a tremendous amount of upheaval since the pandemic. Changes in…

Article Highlights Smaller medical practices are often bogged down by medical billing. Lack of medical billing resources can impair your ability to collect revenue and serve patients. Outsourcing medical billing to PMB can help your practice grow and thrive. *** Each medical practice has its own unique pain points and struggles. While larger medical facilities…

Article Highlights Technology has created efficiencies in handling medical billing. Technology has also introduced data security challenges with patient records. Work with PMB to securely manage billings in accordance with HIPAA requirements. *** The growth of technology used in healthcare has been instrumental in creating cohesive medical billing systems and ensuring billing accuracy. Yet, with…

Article Highlights Constant regulatory changes can create intense pressure on healthcare providers. Medical billing often suffers when staff try to keep up with regulations. Outsource medical billing to PMB to support revenue cycle management. *** Regulations are one of the biggest headaches that healthcare providers must deal with to run a successful practice. And, the…

Story Highlights Patient satisfaction is priority #1 for healthcare providers. Optimize the registration and check-in process to improve patient satisfaction. Consider contactless check-in in the COVID-19 environment. *** Difficulty with scheduling, long wait times, and delayed access to a physician are just a few of the common qualms that patients have with healthcare providers. While…

Article Highlights Constant changes in healthcare affect medical billing and revenue collections. Identify common billing challenges holding back your healthcare organization. Take action by improving processes and outsourcing medical billing to PMB. *** Constant changes to the healthcare industry make it difficult for physicians, medical practices, and other healthcare providers to keep up with things…

Article Highlights The vast majority of Americans do not have a full understanding of health insurance. Educate patients on their patient financial responsibility before providing services. Consider outsourced resources from PMB to support revenue collection. *** If you want to receive more payments for services provided, there is an underrated tactic to consider for your…

Article Highlights Denial management in healthcare can be overwhelming for medical practices. Understand the root causes of denials and work to improve processes. Work with PMB to support denial management to optimize revenue collections. Denial of service is never an ideal scenario in a health care setting. Advanced scheduling, prompt service, desirable patient outcomes, and…

Does your practice manually contact payers to check your claim status? Are you aware that doing so costs roughly $7 per attempt? Your revenue cycle management processes are vital to the financial health and wellness of your practice. Poorly managed handling of claim status inquires costs you not only money but precious time. A few…

Physicians, medical practice owners, home health agencies, and hospice groups experienced a tremendous amount of stress during the COVID-19 pandemic. There were so many new challenges to navigate, especially as it relates to how to provide patient care. These challenges likely impacted your ability to focus on revenue cycle management, billing processes, dealing with insurance…

On December 1, 2020, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a final rule that includes updates on policy changes for Medicare payments under the Physician Fee Schedule (PFS), and other Medicare Part B issues, on or after January 1, 2021. The calendar year (CY) 2021 PFS final rule is one of several…

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released the annual Physician Fee Schedule (PFS) final rule, prioritizing CMS’ investment in primary care and chronic disease management by increasing payments to physicians and other practitioners for the additional time they spend with patients, especially those with chronic conditions. The rule allows non-physician practitioners to provide…

On November 20, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) finalized changes to outdated federal regulations that have burdened health care providers with added administrative costs and impeded the health care system’s move toward value-based reimbursement. The Physician Self-Referral Law, also known as the “Stark Law,” generally prohibits a physician from making referrals to…

The documentation guidelines set forth by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) for evaluation and management (E/M) services, established 20 years ago, do little to support patient care. Instead, they serve more as a scoring system to justify a level of billing (e.g., level 3, 4, or 5), rather than helping physicians diagnose,…

This is the first major update to rules for the Stark law since 1989, according to HHS. An HHS press statement explained that the new rules would give providers in value-based arrangements “greater certainty” and “ease the compliance burden for healthcare providers across the industry,” while maintaining protections against fraud and abuse. Clinicians and hospital…

The U.S. healthcare industry is moving toward value-based care, encouraged by reimbursement initiatives from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). In a value-based model, providers are paid depending on patient outcome rather than on volume of procedures performed. Theoretically, this would promote a focus on patient wellness and preventative medicine, which would improve…

Implementation of a single E/M payment rate for office visit Levels 2 through 4 won’t go into effect until 2021, CMS stated in the new Physician Fee Schedule rule. November 01, 2018 – CMS will collapse evaluation and management (E/M) payment rates, but not until the 2021 calendar year, according to the recently released final 2019…

Despite hospital systems and health officials calling out the need for more primary care doctors, graduates of U.S. medical schools are becoming less likely to choose to specialize in one of those fields. A record-high number of primary care positions was offered in the 2019 National Resident Matching Program—known to doctors as “the Match.” It…

Beginning January 2020, primary care practitioners may qualify to participate in one of five new payment model options that focus on supporting care for patients who have chronic conditions and serious illnesses. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) Primary Care Initiative is a new set of payment models that will provide primary care…