Cape Medical Billing: Providing Expert Medical Billing Solutions

Like Cape Medical Billing on Facebook

Call Today 888-MED-BILR

May 2020 Client Newsletter

Telemedicine
 
April was an incredibly busy month as our clients continued learning & using Audio & Visual aids to remotely treat their patients. Billing services were deemed "essential" which allowed our staff to continue to provide the usual high-level customer service to our clients. Since July 17th we had provided MANY emails with educational information to help our clients learn about telemedicine and various HHS payment programs.
 
HHS & CMS continued to release numerous updates and we shared many summaries with our clients. Terms like "Relief Funds," "PPP," "Advanced Payments," "Uninsured Patient Program," etc. became common. New Telemedicine billing codes were billed, the new "COVID" diagnosis code (U07.1) and an uncountable number of new "things" were learned in April as we continued to steer our way thru the Coronavirus pandemic.
 
As of this writing, in just over 5 weeks our clients were paid over $31,000 for the telemedicine services, with tens of thousands more pending payment by insurers! That may not sound like much but about half of our clients did not begin to use telemedicine regularly until early April. Patients also had to learn about it and accept its value.
 
CPB's billing software has some excellent features that allowed us to bill telemedicine codes with the many different modifiers & Place of Service configurations required by the various insurance companies - without any errors. Pick the correct insurance and CPT/HCPCS code and the claim was billed accurately the first time! Looking at the time from date of billing to date of payment shows as low as 2 days! Many less than 10 days. Medicare at 14 days, of course.
 
Now clients are beginning to plan to reopen their offices to patients. Some were innovative and found safe ways to continue to see patients in their office. It was an honor and a privilege to share this unusual experience with our clients! Hopefully May will be the start of returning to normal - whatever that will be.
 
 
Medicare FFS Claims: 2% Payment Adjustment Suspended (Sequestration)
 
Section 3709 of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act temporarily suspends the 2% payment adjustment currently applied to all Medicare Fee-For-Service (FFS) claims due to sequestration. The suspension is effective for claims with dates of service from May 1, 2020 through December 31, 2020.
 
 
COVID-19 - CMS - Durable Medical Equipment, Prosthetics, Orthotics and Supplies (DMEPOS)
  
When DMEPOS is lost, destroyed, irreparably damaged, or otherwise rendered unusable, CMS is allowing DME Medicare Administrative Contractors (MACs) to have the flexibility to waive replacements requirements such that the face-to-face requirement, a new physician's order, and new medical necessity documentation are not required. Suppliers must still include a narrative description on the claim explaining the reason why the equipment must be replaced and are reminded to maintain documentation indicating that the DMEPOS was lost, destroyed, irreparably damaged or otherwise rendered unusable or unavailable as a result of the emergency. This is valid until the end of the Public Health Emergency (PHE).
2020 Client Newsletter Archive