Privacy officers must ensure their hospital removes potential patient identifiers from data sets used for reasons outside of treatment, payment, and healthcare operations, privacy experts say.
One of the major changes to the 2013 CPT Manual is the replacement of the term "physician" with "physician or other qualified healthcare professional" (QHP) in a wide range of codes.
Recovery Auditor overpayment and underpayment statistics are released by CMS at the close of each fiscal year (FY) quarter, and with FY 2012 in the books, CMS has published its year-end improper payment figures. In FY 2012, the numbers continued to ascend, as CMS more than doubled its total correction amount from the previous year.
Law enforcement officials in Texas, Florida, and New York recently announced plea agreements and fines involving the billing of an unapproved prescription drug and Medicare fraud.
