News from the AOA's Blog

On Dec. 21, President Barack Obama signed into law a measure that prevents enactment of the scheduled 21.2 percent cut in Medicare physician reimbursement set to take effect Jan 1. 2010. The new law freezes Medicare physician rates for two months; however, the stop-gap measure will expire and impose massive Medicare payment cuts without AOA-backed corrective legislative action. Read the rest of this entry ?

Effective January 1, 2010, consultation codes (99251-99255, 99241-99245) will no longer be recognized on claims for Medicare Part B payment, according to the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).

Physicians should now report patient evaluation and management visits using appropriate E/M codes that indicate where the visit occurred and the complexity of the services performed, the agency stipulated in a Dec. 14 advisory to carriers. Read the rest of this entry ?

Resources Aimed at Expanding Scope and Impact of Key Public Health Program for Kids

President Barack Obama yesterday signed into law a measure that provides nearly $600,000 in new federal resources to help expand the scope and impact of InfantSEE® – the signature public health program of the American Optometric Association (AOA) and administered by Optometry’s Charity™ – The AOA Foundation. Read the rest of this entry ?

Measure Considered a Fitting Memorial for Army Major Devoted to Eye and Vision Care

The American Optometric Association (AOA) and its 36,000 members today announced overwhelming support for a growing movement in Congress to name the future Blind Rehabilitation Center at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Long Beach Medical Center in honor of the first ever Army optometrist killed in action while on active duty. Read the rest of this entry ?

The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is delaying until April 5, 2010, implementation of a controversial, new payment policy that will effectively require all health care practitioners who see Medicare Part B patients to be listed in government health plan’s national Provider Enrollment, Chain and Ownership System (PECOS). Medicare had planned to begin rejecting claims for noncompliance with the new policy on Jan. 4, 2010. Practitioners will now have additional time to determine if they are listed in the PECOS provider roster and, if not, to re-enroll as Medicare providers through the system, the AOA Advocacy Group notes. Read the rest of this entry ?

Some optometrists and ophthalmologists are receiving notices from Palmetto GBA, acting as the Medicare National Supplier Clearinghouse (NSC), revoking their DMEPOS billing number in 30 days for not having a surety bond. In response to AOA, the NSC acknowledged that they had no intent to revoke billing privileges from optometrists who are exempt from the surety bond requirement. After further discussions with CMS and NSC, the AOA Advocacy Group learned that in some cases the optometrist had checked “optician” on the 855s Medicare DMEPOS supplier enrollment form and, since opticians are not exempt, this has caused Palmetto to revoke the billing privileges. Read the rest of this entry ?

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) requires all Medicare Advantage (MA) plans to educate their contracted providers with respect to Medicare fraud, waste, and abuse and to show evidence of compliance prior to Dec. 31, 2009. MA plans could drop physicians from their networks for noncompliance. Read the rest of this entry ?