November/December 2010
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**SAVE THE DATE**
February 9, 2011
8:00 am – 5:00 pm
LOOK FOR YOUR INVITES IN THE COMING WEEKS!
PCM software versions from 5.5.500 to 5.5.643 have been continuously updated and changed in order to meet the advanced e-Rx and Meaningful Use requirements, some of which are necessary in order to participate in the 2010 Electronic Prescribing Incentive Program.
The PCM E-Prescribing feature interfaces with NewCrop, a licensed vendor for electronic prescribing who provides the formulary and eligibility verification required for the Medicare E-Prescribing Incentive program.
Is it too late to start, and am I eligible?
It is not too late to start. Following is an excerpt from a Medicare website providing useful information regarding the Medicare E-Prescribing Incentive requirements. Refer to the website below for complete information.
Information regarding Medicare Incentive Payments, Meaningful Use, the E-Rx Incentive Program, and PQRI is available on the following websites.
The Intellect E-Prescribing feature interfaces with NewCrop, a licensed vendor for electronic prescribing who provides the formulary and eligibility verification required for the Medicare E-Prescribing Incentive program.
Is it too late to start, and am I eligible?
It is not too late to start. Following is an excerpt from a Medicare website providing useful information regarding the Medicare E-Prescribing Incentive requirements. Refer to the website below for complete information.
In the past WebSTAFF was available for use with OnSTAFF and has now been re-released for Intellect. WebSTAFF gives you the flexibility to retrieve your appointment schedule or post charges wherever you can access the internet. Once your IT person has completed hardware set up and set up on Intellect, at your convenience, you may open a web browser, enter the WebSTAFF address, complete your Login and Password, and you’re connected. For more information, contact PCS.
Under the "Industry News" menu option to the left, the following addition was made:
Partial Code Freeze Prior to ICD-10 Implementation
In honor of Christmas, Prime Clinical will close at noon PST on Thursday, December 23rd, and will be closed all day on Friday, December 24th.
To celebrate New Year's Day, Prime Clinical will close at noon PST on Thursday, December 30th, and will be closed all day on Friday, December 31st.
Have a safe and healthy holiday.
In November, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced that beginning in 2012, eligible professionals who are not successful electronic prescribers may be subject to a payment adjustment, or penalty. Section 132 of the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008 (MIPPA) authorizes CMS to apply this payment adjustment whether or not the eligible professional is planning to participate in the eRx Incentive Program.
An Important Message from National Government Services:
Do you order laboratory tests, radiology services, other types of diagnostic tests, diabetes self management training, medical nutrition therapy or durable medical equipment or supplies?
If the answer is yes, your National Provider Identifier (NPI) is entered on claims sent to Medicare as an ordering/referring physician. Beginning January 3, 2011 when those claims reach your Medicare contractor and the NPI entered as the ordering/referring is not in the Provider Enrollment, Chain and Ownership System (PECOS) those claims will reject and not be paid.
The healthcare industry might not yet realize this simple fact: Although this does not garner much in the way of media attention, ICD-10 promises to improve the business of healthcare in numerous ways.
Despite the cost, expanse, and overwhelming transformation payers and providers will have to undertake to achieve ICD-10 compliance, ultimately it will be a boon for both healthcare in America and those organizations that serve up that care.
Changes to the Medicare Part D drug benefit program go into effect on Jan. 1, 2011, including a mandate that most Part D claims transactions be done electronically.
Under a final rule published on April 15, Part D sponsors must contractually mandate "that their network pharmacies submit claims electronically to the Part D sponsor or its intermediary on behalf of the beneficiary whenever feasible unless the enrollee expressly requests that a particular claim not be submitted to the Part D sponsor or its intermediary."
Just as Bloomberg and Thomson Reuters evolved from financial news outlets to comprehensive national financial networks with information, analytics and trading platforms, a handful of health information networks will emerge with national scope to connect regional information exchanges and transactions processing platforms.
In a Federal Register announcement on Friday [Nov. 19, 2010], CMS detailed its plans to add several new features to its Hospital Compare website in 2011, including patient safety measures and explanatory language to improve user understanding, Government Health IT reports.
The website provides information on hospitals' treatment options in Medicare's fee-for-service program to help users decide which health care providers to choose.
Seventy percent of surveyed U.S. adults believe patients should be able to download and retain copies of personal health information, according to a new Markle Foundation survey.
Sixty-five percent of surveyed physicians also agree that patients should be able to download their health information, compared with 10% who are neutral and 15% who disagree.
The survey also found that 93% of the public rarely or never asks for copies of their personal health information or medical records in electronic format. Similarly, 92% of doctors report rarely or never receiving requests from patients for electronic versions of their medical information.
Results are based on online surveys of 779 U.S. physicians and 1,582 U.S. adults ages 18 and older conducted from Aug. 10 to Aug. 26, 2010.
Source: Markle Foundation, "Markle Survey on Health in a Networked Life 2010"
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