World Chiropractic organizations protecting Medicare access

[Guest guest]

Listserv,

As FCLB delegate, I'm sending this news release. The FCLB, for those of you who don't know is the Federation of Chiropractic Licensing Boards. It's made up of delegates from all over the world. There's one delegate from each state in the USA, each province in Canada, each Chiropractic college president, each country in the world. They meet once a year to discuss trends in chiropractic from a world wide perspective. Last yrs meeting was in Montreal Canada. You can get a copy of my report from that meeting via our board. This year's meeting is going to be held here in Portland. Don't shoot the messenger.

Minga Guerrero DC

Please see the following news release issued jointly by the four organizations, including FCLB, who are working to address the OIG Report on chiropractic documentation errors.

NEWS RELEASE

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chiropractic Organizations Join Forces to

Implement Comprehensive Response to

Inspector General Report

Detailed Action Plan Unveiled to Counter Documentation Errors

In response to a June 2005 report issued by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of the Inspector General (OIG), which was highly critical of the chiropractic profession’s participation in the Medicare program, a coalition of four chiropractic organizations today released a jointly developed “Action Plan†intended to remedy the problems identified by the HHS OIG.

The four organizations included in the task force are: the Association of Chiropractic Colleges (ACC), the American Chiropractic Association (ACA), the Congress of Chiropractic State Associations (COCSA), and the Federation of Chiropractic Licensing Boards (FCLB).

The OIG Report, based on a random sampling of claims data from 2001, concluded that 67 percent of the claims examined as part of the study contained documentation errors or omissions that led to what the OIG considered to be inappropriate reimbursement under Medicare. The report also extrapolated that U.S. taxpayers could save more than $280 million per year if improperly documented claims filed by chiropractors were not paid by Medicare.

While documentation errors relating to Medicare claims are common to all provider types, as a class, doctors of chiropractic have the highest error rate in comparison to other provider groups.

Longstanding chiropractic supporters on Capitol Hill also took notice of the OIG Report, and expressed concerns about Medicare documentation and claims. Key staffers warned that legislative and policy corrections could be externally imposed if the chiropractic profession did not promptly undertake effective measures to significantly reduce the error rates associated with chiropractic Medicare claims.

Recognizing the threat posed to the profession, and the harmful effects on patients if access to chiropractic care were further limited in the Medicare program, the four chiropractic organizations named above quickly combined ideas and resources to prepare a comprehensive plan that has the potential to improve the overall climate for federal chiropractic claims.

The proposed Action Plan relies heavily on the cooperation of state licensing authorities to develop mandatory continuing education courses specific to the issue of documentation and that are targeted at Medicare compliance. “We need to do more, and we all need to be part of the solution. The licensing boards need to take a closer look at the continuing education and ethical issues involved in solving this problem,†said FCLB President Ed Weathersby, DC.

The plan also calls on chiropractic colleges to review their curricula to ensure that chiropractic students receive comprehensive training on proper documentation for “medical necessity.†“This appears to be an education and training issue,†said ACC President Zolli, DC.

In addition, the plan relies on the cooperation of COCSA-member state associations to work closely with the ACC, ACA and state licensing boards to offer a number of quality continuing education opportunities that are uniform in content. The four groups comprising the Task Force will work together to develop “model†content for these training programs, with a core program unveiled by May 2006.

COCSA President Steve Simonetti, DC, promised strong support by state associations. “State associations will lead the effort by informing doctors of chiropractic about the problem, and then by providing opportunities for DCs and their staff to receive proper training to eradicate these filing errors.†As a result of the Action Plan, every licensed DC should have multiple opportunities to access Medicare documentation training in the next 12 months.

To sustain the continuing education component of the Action Plan, the ACA has agreed to make copies of its recently published Clinical Documentation Manual available at cost to the entire profession. “The first step has been taken with development of the Clinical Documentation Manual. Now we must turn every practitioner’s attention to the details involved with filing claims properly,†said ACA President G. Brassard, DC.

In early 2006, the Task Force will also widely circulate an “Open Letter†to the chiropractic profession reiterating how important it is for DCs to properly document Medicare claims.

While the burden of implementing the Task Force Action Plan falls almost entirely on the chiropractic profession, the four organizations fully recognize that there are outstanding issues related to carrier administration of the Medicare program that must be addressed. Therefore, the joint Task Force also plans to work directly with Medicare’s designated carriers to identify ways in which they can standardize and improve the processing of chiropractic Medicare claims. A target date to meet with carrier representatives is Jan. 31, 2006.

Download the Task Force’s Action Plan at http://www.fclb.org/

1/4/06

Bridget Seader, Program Administrator

Federation of Chiropractic Licensing Boards

5401 West 10th Street, Suite 101

Greeley, CO 80634

Phone: 970-356-3500 Fax: 970-356-3599

web: www.fclb.org email: bseader@...

Please see the following news release issued jointly by the four organizations, including FCLB, who are working to address the OIG Report on chiropractic documentation errors.

NEWS RELEASE

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chiropractic Organizations Join Forces to

Implement Comprehensive Response to

Inspector General Report

Detailed Action Plan Unveiled to Counter Documentation Errors

In response to a June 2005 report issued by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of the Inspector General (OIG), which was highly critical of the chiropractic profession’s participation in the Medicare program, a coalition of four chiropractic organizations today released a jointly developed “Action Plan†intended to remedy the problems identified by the HHS OIG.

The four organizations included in the task force are: the Association of Chiropractic Colleges (ACC), the American Chiropractic Association (ACA), the Congress of Chiropractic State Associations (COCSA), and the Federation of Chiropractic Licensing Boards (FCLB).

The OIG Report, based on a random sampling of claims data from 2001, concluded that 67 percent of the claims examined as part of the study contained documentation errors or omissions that led to what the OIG considered to be inappropriate reimbursement under Medicare. The report also extrapolated that U.S. taxpayers could save more than $280 million per year if improperly documented claims filed by chiropractors were not paid by Medicare.

While documentation errors relating to Medicare claims are common to all provider types, as a class, doctors of chiropractic have the highest error rate in comparison to other provider groups.

Longstanding chiropractic supporters on Capitol Hill also took notice of the OIG Report, and expressed concerns about Medicare documentation and claims. Key staffers warned that legislative and policy corrections could be externally imposed if the chiropractic profession did not promptly undertake effective measures to significantly reduce the error rates associated with chiropractic Medicare claims.

Recognizing the threat posed to the profession, and the harmful effects on patients if access to chiropractic care were further limited in the Medicare program, the four chiropractic organizations named above quickly combined ideas and resources to prepare a comprehensive plan that has the potential to improve the overall climate for federal chiropractic claims.

The proposed Action Plan relies heavily on the cooperation of state licensing authorities to develop mandatory continuing education courses specific to the issue of documentation and that are targeted at Medicare compliance. “We need to do more, and we all need to be part of the solution. The licensing boards need to take a closer look at the continuing education and ethical issues involved in solving this problem,†said FCLB President Ed Weathersby, DC.

The plan also calls on chiropractic colleges to review their curricula to ensure that chiropractic students receive comprehensive training on proper documentation for “medical necessity.†“This appears to be an education and training issue,†said ACC President Zolli, DC.

In addition, the plan relies on the cooperation of COCSA-member state associations to work closely with the ACC, ACA and state licensing boards to offer a number of quality continuing education opportunities that are uniform in content. The four groups comprising the Task Force will work together to develop “model†content for these training programs, with a core program unveiled by May 2006.

COCSA President Steve Simonetti, DC, promised strong support by state associations. “State associations will lead the effort by informing doctors of chiropractic about the problem, and then by providing opportunities for DCs and their staff to receive proper training to eradicate these filing errors.†As a result of the Action Plan, every licensed DC should have multiple opportunities to access Medicare documentation training in the next 12 months.

To sustain the continuing education component of the Action Plan, the ACA has agreed to make copies of its recently published Clinical Documentation Manual available at cost to the entire profession. “The first step has been taken with development of the Clinical Documentation Manual. Now we must turn every practitioner’s attention to the details involved with filing claims properly,†said ACA President G. Brassard, DC.

In early 2006, the Task Force will also widely circulate an “Open Letter†to the chiropractic profession reiterating how important it is for DCs to properly document Medicare claims.

While the burden of implementing the Task Force Action Plan falls almost entirely on the chiropractic profession, the four organizations fully recognize that there are outstanding issues related to carrier administration of the Medicare program that must be addressed. Therefore, the joint Task Force also plans to work directly with Medicare’s designated carriers to identify ways in which they can standardize and improve the processing of chiropractic Medicare claims. A target date to meet with carrier representatives is Jan. 31, 2006.

Download the Task Force’s Action Plan at http://www.fclb.org/

1/4/06

Bridget Seader, Program Administrator

Federation of Chiropractic Licensing Boards

5401 West 10th Street, Suite 101

Greeley, CO 80634

Phone: 970-356-3500 Fax: 970-356-3599

web: www.fclb.org email: bseader@...