COVID-19 has had a dramatic impact on the health care system, causing a re-evaluation of the way physician care is delivered. During the pandemic, in-person office visits have been postponed or changed to telehealth visits, elective procedures have been canceled, and patients, concerned about contracting COVID, have delayed or postponed their regular visits.» Read More

As we look toward the end of a tumultuous year, it is incumbent on all those who are involved in the fight against COVID-19 to consider what was learned, acknowledge where efforts went wrong, celebrate collective achievements, and transition the provision of medicine to comport with the ever-changing needs of patients.» Read More

The Office of Inspector General’s (OIG) Work Plan sets forth various projects including OIG audits and evaluations that are underway or planned to be addressed by the OIG during the fiscal year. The OIG updates its Work Plan monthly. The July 2020 Work Plan updates include six items directly related to the COVID-19 pandemic and includes the following:

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In response to the COVID-19 epidemic, federal and state governments implemented numerous and expansive regulatory changes to ensure patients were provided access to required testing and treatments. One of the more important (and ultimately successful) regulatory changes was the temporary expansion of telehealth services.» Read More

In an effort to make health care more accessible during these unprecedented times, while we deal with the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the government is relaxing some rules and regulations when it comes to telehealth. As we discussed in our earlier blog post, on March 17th, The Office of Inspector General issued a policy statement waiving sanctions for providers’ waiver of telehealth cost-sharing amounts during the current Public Health Emergency.» Read More

We at Norris McLaughlin recognize that the constantly changing crisis related to the COVID-19 virus has resulted in an unprecedented time for all health care practitioners – a time that for most is filled with uncertainty regarding their practices and patients.» Read More

The Office of Inspector General (OIG) announced in a policy statement issued today, March 17, 2020, that physicians and other practitioners will not be subject to sanctions for reducing or waiving any Medicare or Medicaid patient co-pays or deductibles for telehealth services furnished to the patient during the period of public health emergency declared by the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services on January 31, 2020, in response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.» Read More

On July 12, 2018, The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) proposed a major overhaul of the way doctors have billed Medicare for patient visits for two decades. Some of the key provisions in the lengthy proposed rule include:

• simplifying the billing process to require less documentation that must be submitted by collapsing four separate levels of documentation requirements into one;
• allowing physicians to use their medical decision making or time spent with the patient to designate the level of patient care needed in lieu of using the traditional evaluation and management codes;
• paying physicians for certain telemedicine services; and
• continuing the site-neutral policy that pays off-campus facilities 40% of the outpatient rates for the services they provide to encourage “fairer competition between hospitals and physician practices by promoting greater payment alignment between outpatient care settings.”