In these ever-changing times in health care, can you afford to miss any information? Your Midwest AAOE education committee is hard at work finalizing a great program for Fall 2012. We will meet in Kansas at the Double Tree in Overland Park on October 5th and 6th. 

Medicare RAC audits of E&M services

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) alerted the AMA that it has approved the Medicare Region C Recovery Auditor (RAC) Connolly to begin conducting audits of coding for evaluation and management (E&M) services in physician offices, specifically, Current Procedural Terminology (CPT®) code 99215. We have been informed that in the next several weeks, Connolly will begin complex medical review of CPT code 99215, and will be permitted to extrapolate their findings based on a statistical sample of such claims. Connolly, a Medicare fee-for-service (FFS) RAC contractor, has posted an Approval Notice for these audits which will now begin in the following states: AL, AR, CO, FL, GA, LA, MS, NM, NC, OK, SC, TN, TX, VA, WV, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. According to CMS, these audits are likely to be approved in other Medicare regions in the near future.

The AMA sent a letter to CMS strongly objecting to these audits and urging CMS to rescind approval of RAC review of E&M codes. Visit the AMA website to learn more about audits. You can also view an archived webinar, "Medicare and Medicaid audits: What physicians need to know."

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology's (ONC) Office of the Chief Privacy Officer (OCPO) has released its first web-based security training module, CyberSecure: Your Medical Practice. http://www.healthit.gov/providers-professionals/privacy-security-training-games

The security training module, which was developed with the assistance of the Regional Extension Center Program's Privacy and Security Community of Practice, uses a game format that requires users to respond to privacy and security challenges often faced in a typical small medical practice. Users choosing the right response earn points and see their virtual medical practices flourish. But users making the wrong security decisions can hurt their virtual practices.

The use of gamification by ONC is an innovative approach aimed at educating health care providers to make more informed decisions regarding privacy and security of health information.