Medical Billing and Coding Online

ICD-10 delay news confirmed! Medicare SGR Fix Bill 2014

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify;" trbidi="on">US House of Representatives approved ICD-10 delay until October 1, 2015 through a voice vote, in favor of passing the patch for the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR). <br />
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The ICD-10 delay news is now confirmed, as the bill (HR 4302) is sure to be signed by President Obama, after US Senate voting. The ICD-10 delay bill is confirmed to be passed fron senate as, John Boehner (House Speaker) announced that he and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid had agreed on the proposal.<br />
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<blockquote><u>SEC 212: DELAY IN TRANSITION FROM ICD–9 TO ICD–10 CODE SETS</u><br />
The Secretary of Health and Human Services may not, prior to October 1, 2015, adopt ICD–10 code sets as the standard for code sets under section 1173(c) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1320d–2(c)) and section 162.1002 of title 45, Code of Federal Regulations.</blockquote><br />
From October 1, 2014 the ICD-9 coding sets used to report medical diagnoses and inpatient procedures currently, was scheduled to be replaced by ICD-10 coding system. The transition to ICD-10 is required by <a href="http://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Coding/ICD10/index.html">CMS</a> for everyone covered by the Health Insurance Portability Accountability Act (HIPAA) and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). <br />
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<div style="text-align:center;"><a href="http://www.medicalbillingcodings.org/2014/03/ICD10-delay-news-SGRfixBill-medicare.html"><img alt="ICD-10 delay news confirmed! Medicare SGR Fix Bill 2014" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPe9YwU_eNhVq_YO-eNzFNGmD0STbQOssGjH0vtUOB87-T3K93IfsMtlm1GojOo2IhKx9mlm2dxzjVA0OMy_Noph8KmTzxdTu6iWRSEL3ot09mV6lw5stKJpekBElNv4NZgY_odXIbxz2x/s560/icd10-delay-news-SGRfixBill-medicare.jpg" /></a></div><br />
Although ICD-10 change does not affect CPT coding for outpatient procedures and physician services, ICD-10 implementation is still a huge step. That's why Provider Practices, Medical Billing Coding Companies, Medical Insurance Payers and all other stake holders in the United States healthcare panorama were in almost panic state almost aimed upcoming CMS ICD-10 compliance deadline.  <br />
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Associations such as the American Medical Association (AMA) had asked their members to convince Congress of the need for a timely SGR repeal, with the failure to do by March 31, leading to a 24% cut in payments to physicians.<br />
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<h2>Medicare SGR Fix Bill 2014 details</h2>Medicare SGR Fix Bill 2014 contains a slew of additional health care provisions and benefits for physicians, hospitals, drug makers and other providers:<br />
<ol><li>Grant Medicare physicians a 0.5% fee increase through the end of 2014.</li>
<li>Provide higher Medicare payments to hospitals in rural areas and for ambulance services in such areas.</li>
<li>Establish two new mental health grant programs, one of which would receive $60 million over four years to improve outpatient treatment for individuals with serious mental illnesses.</li>
<li>Delay the deadline to implement the new ICD-10 diagnostic and procedure code sets by one year to Oct 1, 2015</li>
<li>Delay implementation of the new inpatient payment rule for hospitals, known as the two-midnight rule, by six months, to March 2015.</li>
</li><li>Implement $2 billion in payment reductions over 10 years to skilled nursing providers.</li>
</ol><br />
<h2>ICD-10 Delay Impact on Healthcare Industry</h2>If the AHIMA numbers are even close to being correct, which I believe they are, this is going to cost the industry substantial amounts of money in the tune of $1 to $6 billion dollars, but most importantly loss of momentum and energy around something that really is important.<br />
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The ICD-10 implementation delay will also leave those healthcare services providers disadvantaged, who has prioritized ICD-10 compliance over other activities.<br />
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<h3>Is ICD-10 Compliance Delay Good or Bad?</h3>A lot of people still see the rationale behind the ICD-10 compliance deadline delay. Most of these concerns came from the physicians, particularly Specialty Providers. <br />
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Although there were ways to deal with those. We could go to only the hospital side moving to ICD-10 and leaving physician-based payment on ICD-9 for another year, which is what they did in Canada for years. You could go to another model where we even did dual billing for several years and use this as a migration tool. <br />
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But the thing that needs to be re-prioritized from a timing perspective is actually meaningful use, which everybody has concerns about. The majority of hospitals, which also include a majority of the physicians employed within them, are comfortable with the time frame of ICD-10. Why would we delay that and not being looking at the other timeline?<br />
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There are lots of other things in the bill that are appropriate and need to be corrected. They need to deal with SGR, the overnight rule, and several other things that are in there. Those are appropriate. But when you include things in there that should stand on their own, you tend to create collateral damage<br />
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Back in October 2013, I wrote about <a href="http://www.medicalbillingcodings.org/2013/01/icd10-compliancedate-delay-deadline.html">ICD 10 Compliance Deadline Delay</a>. Now ICD-10 Compliance Deadline is once again delayed for another year. But ICD-10 Implementation is not selves and is still very much on the calendar. Isn't it really?<br />
</div>

ICD-10 delay news confirmed! Medicare SGR Fix Bill 2014

US House of Representatives approved ICD-10 delay until October 1, 2015 through a voice vote, in favor of passing the patch for the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR). The ICD-10 delay news is now confirm…

Will Employer Paid Health Insurance Benefits be Taxable in 2015 or 2016?

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify;" trbidi="on">Affordable Care Act is initiating new debates and questions as the healthcare reform are coming to full swing. One of these debate is "How Obamacare Will Impact Companies?" and a consequent question that "Will Employer Paid Health Benefits be taxable in 2015 or 2016?"<br />
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Obamacare is sure to have an enormous impact on how companies and business employers offer insurance coverage to their employees. Under the new act, employers will be required to provide health care coverage if their employees exceed the minimum set value of 50.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear:both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.medicalbillingcodings.org/2014/03/employer-paid-health-benefits-taxable.html" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Will Employer Paid Health Benefits Taxable in 2015/ 2016?" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW1sjkaPeUq2VLI9j3gP3JuQ5CtOmqK_-_elYVq5wYrdf589oFu85K2rBTNoQmjhSWng_1xX7OpWrfWw6hLmJzn51kiwuTE-9AsIqcs6-g40g5WTgRFbEkMfeUBEjxAC7LAVnHYBnV82g/s1600/will-employer-paid-health-benefits-taxable-2015-2016.jpg" /></a></div><br />
Employer paid benefit changes have been a major outcry from both houses of representatives as well as from the employers who feel they are being burdened on the current economic situation of the country. <br />
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The government will roll out these changes in employer mandate gradually in coming years. But this delay will not affect the other segments of the Affordable Care Act which have been in operation.<br />
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<h2>Employer Paid Health Benefits Taxable in 2015/2016?</h2>Leaving the Cadillac plan, currently there is no law on the books, making employer paid health insurance benefits taxable in 2014. But there are many experts who believe that United Sates government will tax employer provided health benefit as some point.<br />
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The Cadillac Tax on employers is indeed scheduled for 2018. Other than that, there are two taxes/fees that are starting from 2014. First is the tax on insurance premiums charged by insurance companies that will eventually pass on to employees. Second is $63 fee per insured employee, including insured under self insured administrative arrangements.<br />
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There is an additional tax to be included that is referred to as Cadillac plans tax. Which means starting from 2018, high cost health insurance plans will be subject to a 40% excise tax. High cost health plans are defined as above 10,200 for single coverage and 27,500 for family coverage.<br />
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<h3>When will the provision take effect?</h3>The outcry from the employers community seem to have caught the attention of the Obama administration, as there has been a suspension of their mandate till January, 1 2015. <br />
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Employers are expected to use the 1 year break to determine whether they have enough staff base that requires mandatory coverage. The current act requires employers to offer mandatory health care insurance cover if they have more than 50 employees under their belt. The process for identifying potential fines for employers who violate the act will be reviewed and assessed in 2016.<br />
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<h3>Obamacare Affects Employers and Businesses</h3>Beginning January 2015, employers will be required to offer either minimum essential coverage to their employees and failure to do so they will be subject to a penalty from the government. Failure to offer minimum coverage to full time employees who earn salaries in the range of 100-400% above the federal government poverty line, will result in a fine of $2000 per full time employee.<br />
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The other catch of the act lies on the fact that employers who offer minimum essential coverage to their employees and dependents but deemed to be unaffordable or not in the minimum bracket range will be subject to a lesser penalty of $3000. A full time employee under the new act is a person who works 30 hours or more per week or 130 hours per month.<br />
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Employers will be required to check the status of their employees by looking back at a standard measurement period of not less than three months of consecutive period of employment. Employers will thus be required under this case to offer coverage to the full time employees and their dependents for a corresponding 6-12 month stability period. <br />
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The new act will mostly affect businesses depending on the number of full time employees employed, whether the business offers minimum essential coverage or whether one of the employees qualifies for a subsidized form of coverage from the government. <br />
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<h3>Part-time Employees</h3>Under the new act, part time employees working hours can also be converted into FTE for the purpose of determining if they are eligible for coverage by the employer. Conversion in this case will be done by adding monthly hours worked and dividing the total by 120. Employers will not be required to offer coverage to part time employees but hours worked by the employees will be used to determine if they are eligible for coverage <br />
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The new act requiring employers to offer health care coverage to their employees will take a break in 2014 but will be in full operation as of January 2015, subject to penalties in 2016<br />
</div>

Will Employer Paid Health Insurance Benefits be Taxable in 2015 or 2016?

Affordable Care Act is initiating new debates and questions as the healthcare reform are coming to full swing. One of these debate is "How Obamacare Will Impact Companies?" and a consequent question t…

Medical Coding CPC Certification Exam Information and Cost

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify;" trbidi="on">View all the CPC Certification exam information required. The Certified Professional Coder (CPC) Certification is offered by the American Academy of Professional Coders (AAPC). Although the CPC Certification is not required by law, employers can state a preference or requirement that applicants for medical billing and coding positions possess a CPC Certification. <br />
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The AAPC describes the CPC Certification as the top standard for medical coders who work in Medical Billing Business or at physician offices. According to data collected by AAPC and from other independent surveys, as an average CPC Certified Medical Coder salary is 20% higher than non-certified Medical Coding professionals.<br />
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<div style="text-align:center"><a href="http://www.medicalbillingcodings.org/2014/03/medical-coding-certification-CPC-exam-information.html"><img alt="Medical Coding CPC Certification Exam Information and Cost 2014" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg99Vs_DxAmNRlgGwR7yFjH6PzoYgil5aeX0Pn5XhIP_suBcT9nJF8ba8_8gdMAK6Ns4APOvFjzBwwm32xWszM7ZFLUL1iMbW7HJ7d4CRL6K2exw2kjELHNw-U_aF9b6dE8Yc30xj3luXE/s1600/CPC-certification-exam-medical-coding.png" /></a></div><br />
<h2>CPC Medical Coding Certification Exam Requirements</h2>The AAPC recommends that candidates attempting to become CPC Certified Medical Coder should have an associate degree. Those who are interested in pursing a CPC Certification with the AAPC will need to pass the certification exam. Registering for this requires:<br />
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<h4>AAPC membership</h4>You require current AAPC membership for CPC Certification Exam. These are offered at three levels:<br />
 <ul>  <li>Individual – $125</li>
  <li>Student – $70</li>
  <li>Corporate – $750 for 6-10 members</li>
 </ul><h4>Medical Coding Experience</h4>At least two years of medical coding experience is required for Certified Professional Coder (CPC) Certification exam. Candidates who do not have this experience but pass the exam will be designated as "CPC – Apprentice (CPC-A)."<br />
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The "Apprentice" designation will be removed once two letters of recommendation verifying two years of experience are received by the AAPC. One year of experience may be substituted with 80 contact hours of medical coding education.<br />
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<h4>CPC Examination Fee</h4>You will be required to submit CPC exam fee of $300.<br />
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<h2>CPC Certification Exam Process</h2>The application and exam fee, which can both be made through the <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://www.aapc.com/">AAPC</a> website, must be completed four weeks prior to a candidate’s exam date. <br />
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Once a candidate has paid the CPC Certification exam fee, he or she will have one year to complete this. One free CPC exam retake is allowed within a year of a candidate’s first exam. <br />
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<h3>CPC Certification Exam Question</h3>The CPC Certification exam is comprised of 150 multiple-choice questions to be completed in 5 hours and 40 minutes. It is open book, and includes information from the latest editions of:<br />
<ul> <li>American Medical Association CPT (Current Procedural Terminology) coding rules and guidelines, current retail $114.95</li>
 <li>HCPCS (Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System) coding book, current retail $309.95</li>
 <li>ICD-CM (International Classification of Diseases, Clinical Modification), physician offices and outpatient facilities or hospitals and payer organization, current retail $99.95 or $103.95, respectively</li>
</ul>Candidates are encouraged to take these three resources into the exam and use them as references during the test.<br />
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<h3>CPC Certification Exam Scope</h3>The CPC certification exam scope covers a medical coder’s knowledge of 24 subject areas likely to be encountered in a physician office setting, including:<br />
<ul> <li>Anesthesia</li>
 <li>Major Body Systems</li>
 <li>Radiology</li>
 <li>Medicine</li>
 <li>Anatomy and Physiology</li>
 <li>Coding Guidelines</li>
 <li>Pathology</li>
 <li>Laboratory</li>
</ul><br />
<h3>CPC Certification Exam Preparation</h3>In general, It inspects a candidate’s, anatomy, medical coding and medical terminology skills in a strict test environment, where every candidate has to answer 150 multiple choice questions related to the above-mentioned topic areas in just less than 6 hours.<br />
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Although question pattern is on multiple choice questions but still 6 hours is a long time to be sitting, answering exam questions. You will get only 2.4 minutes per question to conclude your answer. Nevertheless that sounds like, it’s so tough to answer. When you will sit for the CPC exam beginning at that question, you will easily find that there is enough time to answer the entire question on time.<br />
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The AAPC recommends several methods for the CPC Exam <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://www.aapc.com/training/cpc-exam-preparation.aspx">preparation</a> for the candidates. That includes:<br />
<ul> <li>AAPC online medical terminology and anatomy courses</li>
 <li>CPC preparation course</li>
 <li>Official CPC study guide</li>
 <li>CPC online practice exam</li>
 <li>CPC review class</li>
</ul>For those who know they will benefit from a more specific certification, the AAPC also offers additional certification options:<br />
<ul> <li>Certified Physician Practice Manager (CPPM)</li>
 <li>Certified Professional Medical Auditor (CPMA)</li>
 <li>Certified Professional Compliance Officer (CPCO)</li>
 <li>Certified Professional Biller (CPB)</li>
 <li>Certified Professional Coder – Hospital Outpatient (CPC-H)</li>
 <li>Certified Professional Coder – Payer (CPC-P)</li>
 <li>Specialty Medical Coding Certification, for over 20 different specializations ranging from surgeries and dermatology to pediatrics and urology</li>
</ul><br />
<h2>CPC Certification Renewal Process</h2>Renewing the CPC Certification requires:<br />
<ul> <li>Maintaining an annual membership with the AAPC</li>
 <li>At least 36 AAPC-approved continuing education units (CEUs) submitted bi-annually, along with associated fees.</li>
</ul></div>

Medical Coding CPC Certification Exam Information and Cost

View all the CPC Certification exam information required. The Certified Professional Coder (CPC) Certification is offered by the American Academy of Professional Coders (AAPC). Although the CPC Certif…

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ICD-10 delay news confirmed! Medicare SGR Fix Bill 2014

Will Employer Paid Health Insurance Benefits be Taxable in 2015 or 2016?

Medical Coding CPC Certification Exam Information and Cost

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