The United States healthcare system is responsible for several crowning achievements, modern innovations, and…failures. Among those failures is the creation of helicopter patient care. You’ve heard about helicopter parenting, the overbearing, over-anxious, micromanagement of children – but we’ve been adopting a similar philosophy when it comes to patient care and patient communication. It might be…
Earlier this week, Advize Health partnered with Grassi Healthcare Advisors to host a webinar on transgender healthcare. This webinar sought out to educate the healthcare community not only on coding for transgender patients, but on every aspect of care for this critically underserved population, from claims denials to the cost of transitioning. The convergence of…
If you’re covered by Medicare, or if your patients are covered by it – you’re about to start feeling more of the effects of The Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) of 2015. Most organizations have been preparing for MACRA’s ripple effects for years, so this wave of change may just be another to…
If you haven’t heard the name Dr. Jay Ken Iinuma before, you’re about to get acquainted. Iinuma is the former Medical Director of health insurance giant Aetna, and he might just be the reason yet another Aetna deal flatlines. During a recent deposition in a lawsuit between Aetna and Gillen Washington, a young adult with…
Yesterday, President Donald Trump presented his $4.4 trillion FY19 budget proposal – and it looks like the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is going to have to tighten its fiscal belt. Trump’s proposed budget demonstrates a 21% decrease from HHS’ 2017 budget. That means the agency may be facing a cut as steep…
The road to compliance is long and bumpy, but a trip we must all take in 2018. In January 2017, compliance professionals from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Office of Inspector General (OIG) held an assembly in which they discussed how to measure the efficacy of Compliance Programs. From this roundtable came…
The Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) is a program that has managed to gain (mostly) bipartisan support, as it provides low-cost healthcare to children in families that earn too much money to qualify for Medicaid; but its days may be numbered. The funding for CHIP ended on September 30th, 2017…and unfortunately, Congress has not yet…
In an unexpected, albeit responsible move, Health and Human Services has retracted their support for a Patient Assistance Program. The Caring Voice Coalition (CVC) is a patient assistance charity that provides financial support to Medicare beneficiaries and other patients. Found in 2003 with seemingly noble intentions, the CVC was founded in 2003 to support patients…
In honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, we’ve decided to release a brief reminder to not only schedule a routine mammogram, but to recall the 2017 Mammogram Coding Changes. Mammography Coding The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced in November 2016’s final rule that they would not be able to accommodate the new…
Coding Modifiers In the English language, a modifier is used to describe the who, what, how, why, and/or where of a situation. Coding modifiers perform the same role for medical coders and billers. These types of modifiers further describe procedure codes without altering its original definition. Modifiers can be found in both the CPT and…