As some of you are aware, the availability of telemedicine services for New York's injured workers was set to expire on July 20th. The NYSCA workers' compensation committee contacted the WCB to ensure telemedicine would remain available for those injured workers who could not seek chiropractic care as a result of COVID-19.
The NYSCA recently hosted a live webinar with Carisk Clearinghouse on Thursday, June 25, 2020 at 8pm: "Workers' Compensation and Auto/No-Fault Made Easy: How to get paid faster."
Your office may have received a notice from American Specialty Health (ASH) titled REMOVAL FROM PARTICIPATION FOR SPECIFIC CLIENT SOURCES. The letter indicates that your office has been terminated from participation in Medicare specific Client Summaries as allowed in your ASH Practitioner Services Agreement.
As many of you are aware, we will be required to submit our workers' compensation claims and clinical documentation in an electronic format. Most (if not all) clearinghouses who work with commercial carriers and Medicare do not accept No Fault and Workers' Compensation Claims.
UnitedHealthcare recently published an update relative to COVID-19. Noted in the introductory paragraph of this notice:
The NYSCA is pleased to share with you the following educational opportunity from National Government Services. This platform will allow you to hear about the latest Medicare education from the NGS Provider Outreach and Education team and ask your questions immediately following.
The NYSCA Officers thank the insurance committee for their work in continuing this conversation and assisting in bringing more options to New York's chiropractors and chiropractic patients. Updates to the United HealthCare policies allowing chiropractors to utilize telemedicine services to care for their patients is below.
During the COVID-19 crisis, telemedicine and telehealth services will allow you to continue to care for your patients from a distance. The NYSCA Insurance Committee continues to interact with various NYS offices, commercial carriers and TPAs to discuss and seek their guidelines relative to the application and coverage of telemedicine services for doctors of chiropractic.
As we in New York begin to experience the exponential surge of COVID-19, members are questioning how they can care for their patients. Some offices remain open as part of essential services, while others have decided to close because of the risk factors. Geography and patient population seem to be the biggest determinants in this professional choice.
NYSCA members have been asking, "Does the WC amendment allowing temporary performance of telemedicine services during Covid-19 extend to No Fault?"
Telemedicine and telehealth services are currently being reviewed and discussed by the state board for chiropractic. However, you may currently perform telemedicine for injured workers in need of timely help.
NYSCA Members have reported that a few workers compensation carriers have failed to properly update their fee schedules based on the January 1, 2020 update. As you know, these changes for parity were needed and overdue. The Workers Compensation Committee continues to act on your behalf to make necessary changes.
UnitedHealthcare will require the use of a 'GP' modifier for all billed physical medicine services effective 04/01/2020.
In order to increase health care provider participation in the workers' compensation system and improve injured workers' access to timely, quality medical care, the Workers' Compensation Board (Board) is supporting electronic submission of CMS-1500 forms, along with a medical narrative. The CMS-1500 streamlines medical billing and may reduce the paperwork requirements currently in the workers' compensation system.
To further assist medical providers in the implementation of the CMS-1500 for workers’ compensation patients, the Board has created a medical narrative report template that can be used to create the medical narrative that must accompany all CMS-1500 submissions.
In response to the CMS call for Feedback on Scope of Practice, the NYSCA has submitted the following:
The NYSCA Workers' Compensation Committee has received numerous calls from our members regarding the revised 1/1/2020 Workers' Compensation Chiropractic Fee Schedule. A fair amount of misinformation is being communicated, particularly in the downstate region, resulting in confusion in the application of the 1/1/2020 Schedule.
The NYSCA has been in contact with the American Chiropractic Association (ACA) regarding possible changes to Medicare as outlined in the following letter from National Government Services.
Have you received a request for documentation from a Medicare contractor but not sure if your records comply? We understand the challenges Doctors of Chiropractic face when determining what to include in responding to a request for medical records. The A/B Medicare Administrative Contractors (MACs) partnered together to create this job aid to help you properly respond to these requests.
