Archives for 2015

Hello from Atlanta! Healthcents has landed at Medtrade, which starts today at the Georgia World Congress Center.

We look forward to connecting with you in the exhibition hall and during our presentation on Tuesday, Oct. 27.  During the presentation, our CEO Steve Selbst will be sharing new ways that medical device and DME companies can generate revenue.

Here is information on where we will be and when:

• Exhibition Hall: Booth 700 near the Northside Drive Entrance. Hall hours are 10 a.m.-4 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 27; Wednesday, Oct. 28; and 10 a.m.-1 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 29
• Presentation: Tuesday, Oct 27, 2:45-3:45 p.m., “10 Key to Unlocking Revenue Potential: How DME/medical device and O&P companies can quickly boost their bottom line,” Room C211

Medtrade is the largest home medical equipment expo and convention in the country, so if you need help finding us or would like to set up a meeting at the event, please call 800-497-4970 or email us at info@healthcents.com.

Major Changes Coming to Physician Reimbursement

Everyone has been working toward the October 1 ICD-10 transition deadline (and congrats because it looks like everything has gone well so far), but there is something on the horizon that is just as major to the medical industry.

Passed this spring, the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA) repealed the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula and replaced it with something called the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS).

Healthcents has been doing extensive research in this area, and we want to alert you about the important coming changes to physician reimbursement. (This is such a major topic that we have been asked to address it at next month’s Practice Management Institute’s National Conference for Medical Office Professionals.)

Here is how MACRA is changing the Medicare reimbursement rules:

• From 2015 to 2019, there will be automatic .5% increases on Medicare physician fee schedule
• From 2019 to 2025, reimbursement remains flat unless you are participating in MIPS or APM (an alternative payment model)

So MIPS represents a bit of a gamble — remain flat on your Medicare physician reimbursement or take a chance to earn more (or have your payments decreased).

How MIPS works is that eligible practitioners are given a score on a scale of 0-100, which affects their Medicare reimbursements. This calculation takes into account four main areas: quality (measures from PQRS, EHR MU, QCDRs), resource use (measures from VM and episodes of care), meaningful use of an EHR system, and something that is called clinical practice improvement activities.

Once calculated, your MIPS score could affect Medicare physician reimbursement anywhere from -4% to +4%. That’s a major impact to your bottom line, considering almost half of each practice’s revenue comes from public payer programs.

The good news is that these policies are not fully defined or set in stone … yet. The CMS is holding a comment period for MIPS until Nov. 2.

You can read the full proposal and submit your comments by clicking here.

The phrase “make your voice heard” get thrown around a lot, but this is definitely something worth your time to read and comment on.