News from the AOA's Blog

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) reminded Medicare Fee-For-Service physicians, providers and suppliers submitting claims to Medicare for payment, as a result of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), effective immediately, all claims for services furnished on or after Jan 1, 2010, must be filed with your Medicare contractor no later than one calendar year (12 months) from the date of service – or Medicare will deny them. 

If you have Medicare Fee-For-Service claims with service dates from Oct 1, 2009, through Dec 31, 2009, those claims MUST be filed by Dec 31, 2010, or Medicare will deny them. Claims with service dates from Jan 1, 2009, to Oct 1, 2009, keep their original Dec 31, 2010 deadline for filing. Read the rest of this entry ?

The U.S. House of Representatives gave final approval late Thursday night to legislation that would provide a temporary extension of current tax rates for all income levels, cut payroll taxes and extend expanded jobless benefits. The $858 billion package now heads to the president’s desk for his signature.

The Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010 will extend the so-called “Bush tax cuts” across the board for two years, slashes the employee payroll tax by 2 percent for one year, extends unemployment insurance benefits and allows 100 percent expensing for businesses next year.

The measure includes a number of provisions directly impacting ODs, their practices and employees, including: Read the rest of this entry ?

Throughout 2009 and 2010, Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) made the “Harkin Amendment,” inclusion of optometry, and patient access safeguards top priorities in the debate over health care legislation in spite of opposition from the AMA, ophthalmology and the insurance industry.

With backing from other pro-patient access leaders in Congress, Sen. Harkin prevailed and his amendment – the first-ever federal standard of provider non-discrimination – is law.

Now, with federal agencies and states moving ahead with the implementation phase of the health care overhaul in a process that will run through 2014, Sen. Harkin wants to work with the AOA to ensure the Harkin Amendment is put in force exactly as Congress intended.

On Oct. 19, Joe Ellis, O.D., AOA president; Steven A. Loomis, O.D., AOA trustee; Richard Skotowski, O.D., Iowa Optometric Association president; and more than 50 ODs from across Iowa traveled to Des Moines to meet with Sen. Harkin and discuss the upcoming post-election “lame duck” session of the 111th Congress and the issues that will confront the new 112th Congress when it convenes in January.

 How to Protect Your Identity Using the Provider Enrollment, Chain and Ownership System (PECOS), a new Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) fact sheet, provides step-by-step instructions to help Fee-For-Service (FFS) providers protect their identity in Medicare’s Internet-based PECOS database.

“If you are enrolled, or plan to enroll in Medicare, it is important that you protect your Medicare identity from getting into the hands of dishonest and unscrupulous people – personal identity thieves and those intending to commit fraud in the Medicare program,” the CMS noted in announcing the fact sheet last month. Read the rest of this entry ?

 The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 requires employers to report the aggregate cost of applicable employer-sponsored coverage on Form W-2, Wage and Tax Statement, beginning Jan. 1, 2011.

On Oct. 12, 2010, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) released Notice 2010-69, which provides interim relief to employers with respect to this reporting requirement. Thus this notice makes such reporting for 2011 voluntary versus mandatory.

Employers who choose not to report the aggregate cost of applicable employer-sponsored coverage on Form W-2, Wage and Tax Statement, beginning Jan. 1, 2011, will not be subject to any penalties for failure to meet such requirements.

The U.S. Treasury Department and the IRS anticipate issuing guidance on the new Form W-2 reporting requirement before the end of the 2010 calendar year.

If an employer does decide to report applicable employer-sponsored coverage on Form W-2, the IRS has also released a draft Form W-2 with some instructions.

 The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) last month issued an update on a three-part study of LASIK (laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis).

In October 2009, the FDA, the National Eye Institute, and the Department of Defense launched the LASIK Quality of Life Collaboration Project. This project examines patient-reported outcomes (PROs) following LASIK. A PRO is a report of a condition experienced by the patient and reported by the patient, not the health care provider.

Results from all three phases of the project will help identify factors that can affect quality of life following a LASIK procedure and potentially reduce the risk of adverse effects that can impact the surgical outcome. Read the rest of this entry ?

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has proposed new rules to help states reduce improper payments for Medicaid health care claims through the use of Medicaid Recovery Audit Contractors (RACs) as part of the Affordable Care Act’s larger strategy to crack down on waste, fraud and abuse in the health care system.

The new Medicaid RACs, working for states, will audit payments made to health care providers to identify Medicaid payments that may have been underpaid or overpaid, and recover overpayments or correct underpayments.

Medicare has already established a similar RAC program. Read the rest of this entry ?