This week’s Medicare updates include an advisory opinion on using network hospitals for inpatient stays; annual updates to HCPCS codes used for home health consolidated billing and the therapy code list; the removal of hyperbaric oxygen therapy (topical application of oxygen) from an NCD; and more!
A CMS representative solicited input from audience members on potential revisions to E/M documentation guidelines at the AMA’s 2018 CPT Symposium in Chicago this week, continuing the agency’s outreach on E/M reform that began with this year’s Medicare Physician Fee Schedule proposed rule.
Currently, there are no national guidelines for how facilities should assign evaluation and management (E/M) levels in the emergency department (ED). Under Medicare’s ambulatory payment classification (APC) system, facilities create their own internal guidelines for determining the ED visit level, and each facility must follow its own system to demonstrate compliance.
The acute kidney injury (AKI) dialysis payment rate is $232.37 for CY 2018, as updated by CMS in the 2018 End-Stage Renal Disease Prospective Payment System (ESRD PPS)