Re: something to blog about

[Guest guest]

For what it's worth, I went through that when I first got out of the

military. The Medicare auditors tied up our billing office for a week

copying a hundred charts or more (this was back when we were on paper

records). After finding almost nothing (one or two minor charge

changes), they've left me alone for almost eight years.

However, this was before the RAC bounty hunters so who knows how

creative they'll be with their audits now. It's a good reason to have

fewer Medicare patients on your panel or to opt out.

I got an email today from someone I know to be practicing very

good medicine.

I understand accountability but the auditting processes we randomly

put docs through, terrorizing them, is horrendous

If you ask me.

"Igot a nastigram from Medicare complete with graphs

telling me I am an outlier and putting me on notice that if my behavior

persists, I will likely be audited. According to their records, 88% of

my

Medicare claims are 99214 with 12% being a 99213. I can justify the

codes as my

EMR is set up to cross check and make sure that I am coding

appropriately

(which was one of the reasons I bought the EMR). I am a bit freaked

out, but I

do spend a lot of time with the patients and I tend to document

everything that

goes on, so HTN, DM, Cholesterol are all itemized out in the chart. If

that is

not enough, I will document the time spent with the patient and code

for time. "

--

PATIENTS,please remember email may not be entirely secure and that

Email is part of the medical record and is placed into the chart ( be

careful what you say!)

Email is best used for appointment making and brief questions

Email replies can be expected within 24 hours-Please CALL if the

matter is more urgent .

MD

ph fax

impcenter.org

[Guest guest]

I think it's a lot different now, and one reason I don't take Medicare. When I worked for residency's 10 yr ago, the auditing started, $10,000 per violation, averaged over how many years they are looking and your total number of medicare patients. Lets say they audit 20 charts, but you have 200 Medicare patients. That's a 10% sample, they find one error, worth 10,000, they multiply that x 10, assuming you make the same error repeatedly, and they multiply that x years. That racks up fast! In that time, University residency programs were big $$ for auditors as they saw 1000's of patients. The Univ of Wa got hit with a bill around 2 million.

Cote' MD Re: something to blog about

For what it's worth, I went through that when I first got out of the military. The Medicare auditors tied up our billing office for a week copying a hundred charts or more (this was back when we were on paper records). After finding almost nothing (one or two minor charge changes), they've left me alone for almost eight years.However, this was before the RAC bounty hunters so who knows how creative they'll be with their audits now. It's a good reason to have fewer Medicare patients on your panel or to opt out.

I got an email today from someone I know to be practicing very good medicine. I understand accountability but the auditting processes we randomly put docs through, terrorizing them, is horrendousIf you ask me."Igot a nastigram from Medicare complete with graphs telling me I am an outlier and putting me on notice that if my behavior persists, I will likely be audited. According to their records, 88% of my Medicare claims are 99214 with 12% being a 99213. I can justify the codes as my EMR is set up to cross check and make sure that I am coding appropriately (which was one of the reasons I bought the EMR). I am a bit freaked out, but I do spend a lot of time with the patients and I tend to document everything that goes on, so HTN, DM, Cholesterol are all itemized out in the chart. If that is not enough, I will document the time spent with the patient and code for time. "-- PATIENTS,please remember email may not be entirely secure and that Email is part of the medical record and is placed into the chart ( be careful what you say!)Email is best used for appointment making and brief questionsEmail replies can be expected within 24 hours-Please CALL if the matter is more urgent . MD ph fax impcenter.org

[Guest guest]

Unfortunately, one of way too many no less.....

To: < >; L. Gordon Sent: Mon, March 8, 2010 3:07:36 PMSubject: something to blog about

I got an email today from someone I know to be practicing very good medicine. I understand accountability but the auditting processes we randomly put docs through, terrorizing them, is horrendousIf you ask me."Igot a nastigram from Medicare complete with graphs telling me I am an outlier and putting me on notice that if my behavior persists, I will likely be audited. According to their records, 88% of my Medicare claims are 99214 with 12% being a 99213. I can justify the codes as my EMR is set up to cross check and make sure that I am coding appropriately (which was one of the reasons I bought the EMR). I am a bit freaked out, but I do spend a lot of time with the patients and I tend to document everything that goes on, so HTN, DM, Cholesterol are all itemized out in the chart. If that is not enough, I will document the time spent with the patient and code for time. "-- PATIENTS,please

remember email may not be entirely secure and that Email is part of the medical record and is placed into the chart ( be careful what you say!)Email is best used for appointment making and brief questionsEmail replies can be expected within 24 hours-Please CALL if the matter is more urgent . MD ph fax impcenter.org