An article in the Medicare MLN Matters from National Government Services on April 9, 2013 indicated that the restriction of chiropractors referring to radiologists as the ordering physician on Medicare beneficiary x-rays was changed. An inquiry was sent to the ACA regarding this policy change.

According to the ACA Medicare committee, research into the MLN Provider Bulletin on April 9, 2013 indicates that the article is incorrect. The reference cited in the article related to the ordering of diagnostic tests did state there was a change. HOWEVER, the ACA checked the Code of Federal Regulations, which are current as of October 28, 2013, and the citation related to the Chiropractic Exception (42 CFR 410.32(a)(1)) has been REMOVED. We recommend that you do not use the radiologist as the ordering physician until the ACA confirms the changes. The ACA is following up with CMS for further clarification and will keep us posted.

CMS announces major savings for Medicare beneficiaries

Part B premiums will see zero growth; billions of dollars saved in donut hole

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) today said that health care reform efforts are eliciting significant out-of-pocket savings for Medicare beneficiaries, pointing to zero growth in 2014 Medicare Part B premiums and deductibles, and more than $8 billion in cumulative savings in the prescription drug coverage gap known as the “donut hole.”

According to CMS, since the Affordable Care Act provision to close the prescription drug donut hole took effect, more than 7.1 million seniors and people with disabilities who reached the donut hole have saved $8.3 billion on their prescription drugs. In the first nine months of 2013 nearly 2.8 million people nationwide who reached the donut hole this year have saved $2.3 billion, an average of $834 per beneficiary. These figures are higher than at this point last year (2.3 million beneficiaries had saved $1.5 billion for an average of $657 per beneficiary).

The health care law gave those who reached the donut hole in 2010 a one-time $250 check, then began phasing in discounts and coverage for brand-name and generic prescription drugs beginning in 2011. The Affordable Care Act will provide additional savings each year until the coverage gap is closed in 2020.

CMS said the standard Medicare Part B monthly premium will be $104.90 in 2014, the same as it was in 2013. The premium has either been less than projected or remained the same, for the past three years. The Medicare Part B deductible will also remain unchanged at $147. The last five years have been among the slowest periods of average Part B premium growth in the program’s history.

“We continue to work hard to keep Medicare beneficiaries’ costs low by rewarding providers for producing better value for their patients and fighting fraud and abuse. As a result, the Medicare Part B premium will not increase for 2014, which is good news for Medicare beneficiaries and for American taxpayers,” said CMS Administrator Marilyn Tavenner.

People with Medicare don’t need to sign up for the new Health Insurance Marketplace, as they are already covered by Medicare. The Marketplace won’t affect Medicare choices, and no matter how an individual gets Medicare, whether through Original Medicare or a Medicare Advantage Plan, they still have the same benefits and security they have now.

Summary: Objective: The relationship between nonverbal behaviors and patient perceptions of clinicians has been underexplored. The aim of this study was to understand the relationship between nonverbal communication behaviors (eye contact and social touch) to patient assessments of clinician (empathy, connectedness, and liking). Methods: Hypotheses were tested including clinician and patient nonverbal behaviors (eye contact, social touch) were coded temporally in 110 videotaped clinical encounters. Patient participants completed questionnaires to measure their perception of clinician empathy, connectedness with clinician, and how much they liked their clinician. Results: Length of visit and eye contact between clinician and patient were positively related to the patient’s assessment of the clinician’s empathy. Eye contact was significantly related to patient perceptions of clinician attributes, such as connectedness and liking. Conclusion: Eye contact and social touch were significantly related to patient perceptions of clinician empathy. Future research in this area is warranted, particular with regards to health information technology and clinical system design. Practice Implications: Clinical environments designed for patient and clinician interaction should be designed to facilitate positive nonverbal interactions such as eye contact and social touch. Specifically, health information technology should not restrict clinicians’ ability to make eye contact with their patients.

Keywords: Clinician-patient interaction, communication, relationship, empathy, nonverbal behavior.

Citation: Montague E, Chen P, Xu J, Chewning B, Barrett B. Nonverbal interpersonal interactions in clinical encounters and patient perceptions of empathy. J Participat Med. 2013 Aug 14; 5:e33.

Published: August 14, 2013.

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is comprised of two overarching parts--the Privacy Rule and Security Rule. The HIPAA Privacy Rule provides federal protections for personal health information and provides patients an array of rights with respect to that information. At the same time, the Privacy Rule is balanced so that it permits the disclosure of personal health information needed for patient care and other important purposes. The Security Rule specifies a series of administrative, physical, and technical safeguards for covered entities to use to assure the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of electronic protected health information.

IMPORTANT UPDATE:

On January 25, 2013, The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) published it’s long awaited Final Rule entitled “Modifications to the HIPAA Privacy, Security, Enforcement, and Breach Notification Rules under the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act and the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act; Other Modifications to the HIPAA Rules” (Omnibus Rule).  There are three (3) specific areas that physicians will need to focus on to comply with the new Omnibus Rule:

1. Privacy, Security, and Breach Notification policies and procedures;
2. Notice of Privacy Practices (NPP); and
3. Business Associate (BA) Agreements.

• *NEW*  HIPAA Resources for Members 
• *NEW* ACA In Touch Article HIPAA Gets an Update - What you Need to Know: Part I (March 2013)
• *NEW* ACA In Touch Article HIPAA Gets an Update - What you Need to Know: Part II (July 2013)
• *NEW* ACA In Touch Article HIPAA Gets an Update - What you Need to Know: Part III (September 2013)
• Disposing Patient Records and HIPAA
• ACANews Article--The Golden Rule of Privacy (April 2008)
• HHS HIPAA Frequently Asked Questions
• HIPAA and Social Media
• HHS HIPAA Resources
• HIPAA Training Materials

The NYSCA Executive Board and Board of Directors are profoundly saddened to announce the passing of Dr. Ivan Abelson on Friday, October 11, 2013.

Dr. Abelson served the chiropractic profession and NYSCA in many capacities, recently as a District 7 delegate. He was the immediate past president of District 7.  Additionally, Dr. Abelson served on the NYSCA Board of Directors and was co-chairman of the membership committee

Current District 7 President, George Rulli notes the the District Board "is in shock at the great loss."

Memorial services will be held Monday October 14, 2014 at 12:00pm at Gutterman's Chapel in Woodbury.

Gutterman's Memorial Chapel
8000 Jericho Turnpike
Woodbury, NY 11797
Telephone: 516.921.5757

The NYSCA Executive Board and Board of Directors wish to express our deepest sympathy to Dr. Abelson's family.

While there has been much publicity about the delays in implementing certain features of the new Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), there is one rapidly approaching deadline that no employer should ignore. Employers must provide their current employees with a health insurance exchange notice no later than October 1, 2013. This applies to all employers engaged in interstate commerce or with at least $500,000 of sales per year, regardless of whether or not an employer offers its employees health care coverage. (If your practice accepts credit cards or insurance, you probably engage in interstate commerce.)

Model employee notices can be accessed at www.dol.gov. (updated link)

Read more about this deadline and what is required of you as an employer at www.natlawreview.com and www.dol.gov/ebsa/healthreform/.

Seneca Falls: New York Chiropractic was named as a Military Friendly School® for 2014.

Surveys administered by the publisher of G.I. Jobs and the Guide to Military Friendly Schools® rank NYCC within the top 15 percent of over 12,000 schools nationwide for recruiting military and veteran students and continuing to improve its efforts toward military friendliness each year.

Independently certified by Ernst and Young, school selection based on surveys was very competitive and stringent criteria were raised to an even higher benchmark. Accordingly, NYCC stands within a select group of academic institutions successfully competing for military students.

Background

A service-specific prepayment audit was conducted by the National Government Services Medical Review Department for Jurisdiction K (JK) Part B claims in Connecticut and New York. The audit focused on claims billed with CPT code 98941, (chiropractic manipulative treatment [CMT], spinal, 3-4 regions) for the following states/locations:

• Connecticut (implemented in January 2012),
• Downstate region of New York (implemented in April 2012),
• NY Queens County (implemented in August 2011), and
• Upstate region of New York (implemented in December 2011).

Medical records will be requested to verify medical necessity of the services provided, and that services were billed according to Medicare Program guidelines. If the submitted documentation does not support CPT 98941, the services will either be correctly coded to an appropriate/lower level (98940) or denied for reasons listed below.

Findings

• Lack of patient’s specific subjective complaint – A relevant medical history in a patient’s record must indicate a beneficiary subjective complaint(s) and the area(s) of complaint(s) should correlate to the area(s) of subluxation(s) cited and/or treated.
• Lack of functional status- Documentation does not describe a patient’s current level of functioning and activities of daily living, nor treatment goals related to functional levels.
• Lack of objective documentation of specific level(s) of subluxation in the exam – The precise level(s) of subluxation must be specified by the chiropractor to substantiate a claim for manipulation of the spine. The level(s) of spinal subluxation must bear a direct causal relationship to the patient's symptom(s), and the symptom(s) must be directly related to the level(s) of the subluxation that has been diagnosed. Documentation needs to be clearly legible without the use of abbreviations, checks or circles that provide minimal and unclear information. If using P.A.R.T (P=pain, A=asymmetry, R=range of motion, T=temp, tone, tonicity) exam, the documentation requirement must be fully met per policy. Policy requires documentation of two of the our criteria, one of which must be asymmetry/misalignment or range of motion abnormality.
• Lack of area(s) of CMT that corresponds to subjective complaint(s) – The specific spinal area(s) that was treated on the day of the visit must be clearly documented and the area(s) treated must correspond to patient’s subjective compliant(s). Documentation needs to be clearly legible without the use of abbreviations, checks or circles that provide minimal and unclear information.
• Treatment plan and goals not documented/not addressed – Documentation of a treatment plan must include the recommended level of care (duration and frequency of visits); specific treatment goals and objective measures to evaluate the treatment effectiveness. The patient’s progress or lack thereof related to the established treatment plan and goals should be addressed on subsequent visits. If treatment continues on without evidence of improvement or the clinical status has remained stable for a given condition, further manipulative treatment is considered maintenance therapy and is a non-covered benefit.
• Documentation supporting maintenance – Maintenance therapy is a noncovered benefit. Examples of maintenance therapy would include long-term treatment per history without the documentation supporting exacerbation, subjective complaint of “minimal pain” on multiple visits without showing improvements or no positive response – documentation remains the same or template for multiple visits. Also, documentation of “chronic” condition with no documentation to support an exacerbation and/or improvement.

Other issues that resulted in claim denials include:

• Nonresponse to development letters – When an ADR letter is received, submitting information and appropriate documentation suggested in the ADR letter is required to consider payment of the claim in question. If the requested medical record is not submitted in a timely manner, the services will be systematically denied.
• Illegible Documentation – Medical record must be legible. If the reviewer cannot decipher the documentation, it may result in the denial of a claim.
• Missing or illegible provider signature – Documentation must be legible and include a provider’s signature. The method used can either be electronic or handwritten, stamp signatures are not acceptable. A signature key or signature log can be included with the documentation to identify the author associated to the illegible signature.
• Incomplete or missing beneficiary information – A patient’s medical record must include a legible beneficiary name for identification. Also, the medical record should be clearly dated and correspond to the date of service billed. If this information is missing or incomplete, it may result in denial of a claim.

We recommend that you perform random sample claim audits within your practice to ensure that these errors do not exist. You may also use the errors identified in the prepay audit as a checklist before submitting future claims. Please also take time to review the LCD and SIA for Chiropractic Services (L27350). The LCD and SIA can be accessed from the Medical Policy Center on the National Government Services Web site. Enter L27350 in the CMS Identifier Number search field and select Go to initiate an LCD search in the CMS Medicare Coverage Database.