Monitor Mondays

Judge James E. Boasberg of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia has ordered the American Hospital Association (AHA) to propose specific recommendations for reducing the Medicare appeals backlog of appeals at the Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) level.

Reporting this developing story is healthcare attorney Andrew Wachler, Esq., managing partner at Wachler and Associates.

The episode rundown also includes:

Monitor with us™

Telemedicine, considered to be an electronic lifeline for rural healthcare, is a rapidly growing sector of health care in the United States that has recently gone through a significant expansion.

Returning to Monitor Mondays to provide an update to his October 2017 report on the CHRONIC Act and MedPac's report on Telemedicine, is attorney Dale C. Van Demark, a partner at McDermott Will & Emery in Washington, D.C.

The episode rundown also includes:

Monitor with us™

Diving deep into the datasphere, senior healthcare analyst Frank Cohen comes up for air in order to report on a new approach he and his team of data experts have developed to predict the likelihood of an audit. While he claims that his team is not yet predicting billing errors, he does report that many of the variables being used to do so can also be used to forecast audits. During this episode Cohen, director of analytics and business intelligence for DoctorsManagement, reports on his latest findings, which could help you and your facility ward off an audit.

The episode rundown also includes:

Monitor with us™

Patients and providers are reeling in Ohio, given the new Anthem BlueCross BlueShield emergency department (ED) policy, allowing the payer to decline claims for non-emergency ED visits. Advocates caution that Ohio patients might not visit the ED, fearful of not having their visits covered. Former ED physician-turned healthcare consultant Erica Remer, herself an Ohioan, reports on this developing story.

Another headline grabbing story is the reported lawsuit filed by Envision Healthcare against UnitedHealthcare (UHC). Envision is using the giant insurer alleging the UHC "unilaterally" lowered payments of Envision's contracted physicians, according to Axios. Healthcare attorney Mary Inman, a partner at Constantine Cannon, reports on this developing story, calling in from the firm's London office.

Yet another story about UHC is reported by Shannon DeConda, founder and president of the National Alliance of Medical Auditing Specialists (NAMAS). UHC, DeConda reports, is cracking down on emergency ED service codes of Level 4 and 5.

The episode rundown also includes:

Monitor with us™

RACmonitor was founded in 2008 to provide news and information for healthcare providers on the emergence of the government’s Recovery Audit Contractor (RAC) program. From a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) demonstration in that year, and continuing to the national rollout in 2010 (coincidentally, the year of Monitor Mondays’ national debut), we have been reporting on activities not only of the RACs, but also the Medicare Administrative Contractors (MACs), Zone Program Integrity Contractors (ZPICs), and the Quality Improvement Organizations (QIOs).

But why, after nearly 10 years, do these auditors still tend to get auditing wrong? Providing insight into this issue during this edition of Monitor Mondays is healthcare attorney Knicole Emanuel, a partner in the Potomac Law Group.

The episode rundown also includes:

Monitor with us™

"Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS) was set to implement a new processing edit with regard to the use of Modifier 25, effective March 1, 2018, but things didn't go as planned," reports Shannon DeConda, founder and president of the National Alliance of Medical Auditing Specialists (NAMAS), as well as the president of coding and billing services and a partner at DoctorsManagement, LLC. During this episode DeConda explains why Anthem is rescinding the new policy.

The episode rundown also includes:

Monitor with us™

"The peer-to-peer (P2P) process is a particularly abhorrent chore for physicians," reports Juliet Ugarte Hopkins, MD, a physician advisor for case management, utilization, and clinical documentation at ProHealth Care, Inc. in Wisconsin. "These phone conversations are generally offered by commercial and managed insurance plans when their clinical case manager or medical director does not feel that inpatient status is supported for a particular patient."

During this episode of Monitor Mondays Dr. Hopkins makes the case for abandoning your P2P process if the results are not satisfactory. Might the pressure of P2Ps even be contributing to some physicians considering opting out of Medicare? Duane Abbey, PhD, president of Abbey and Abbey Consultants, Inc., will review the complexities of compliance facing physicians and practitioners who might consider throwing in the towel.

The episode rundown also includes:

Monitor with us™

Should total knee replacements (TKRs) be performed as inpatient or outpatient procedures? Some facilities are admitting all of them as inpatient while other facilities take a more conservative approach to admission. How are TKRs being handled at your facility?

Mary Beth Pace, vice president of care management at Trinity Health and the special guest on this edition of Monitor Mondays, frames the conundrum as a hypothetical patient/caregiver conversation: "we are going to do major surgery on you, but we are not sure if we will keep you after surgery – and oh, by the way, there will be a copay and deductible either way, we don't know which one. But don't worry, it will be a good thing to have your knee in working order again." Tune in to the podcast as she reports on how TKRs are admitted at Trinity.

Also reporting on this timely subject is Jeffrey Pilger, MD, a board-certified lead physician advisor affiliated with St. Elizabeth Healthcare Edgewood in Edgewood, Ky.

The episode rundown also includes:

Monitor with us™

Who bears the burden and blame of regulatory noncompliance when your facility relies on non-medical software companies that create electronic medical records? We will continue with the second part of this developing story during this episode of Monitor Mondays, when whistleblower attorney Mary Inman reports on an ongoing qui tam action under the federal False Claims Act through which a relator alleges that Bon Secours Health System, Inc. fraudulently billed Medicare and Medicaid millions of dollars. Inman also reports on other current whistleblower cases.

The episode rundown also includes:

Monitor with us™

On the rugged regulatory terrain, you might confront this issue: who bears the burden and blame of regulatory noncompliance when your facility relies on non-medical software companies that create electronic medical records?

Many of these electronic records are self-populated. So, what happens if you undergo a Recovery Audit Contractor (RAC) audit and are accused of wrongdoing? Offering insight into this issue during the next edition of Monitor Mondays will be healthcare attorney Knicole Emanuel, a partner in the Potomac Law Group, who will be the broadcast's special guest.

The episode rundown also includes:

Monitor with us™