Bryanne Halfhill Bryanne Halfhill

It Might Be Halloween Season but Don't Let Coding and Charge Capture Scare You Away...

A clinician's main job is to provide their patients with the highest quality and integrity filled care as possible. You shouldn’t have to worry about NCCI edits, CPT code changes and how each of those differ from payer to payer.

However, as reimbursement rates have become lower and lower, it is necessary to look for ways to increase revenue. We know this is complicated but don’t continue to be spooked by all the reimbursement and coding changes. LRS is here to help!

One of the ways to beef up your practice and stay ahead of the lowering reimbursement rates is to do a quarterly coding and charge capture audit. This will allow you to minimize missed opportunity as well as enhance accuracy, productivity, profitability, cash flow and compliance.

Overlooked, missed, and inconsistent charges leave money on the table. Routine coding audits and monitoring as well as root-cause investigations will lead to crucial insights to help identify and resolve denials, payment speed, and cash flow issues.

While this sounds daunting, LRS specializes in creating charge capture programs and education programs for you and your clinical staff. LRS also works within your EMR (any EMR!) to maximize your efforts in many customizable functions of your system.

LRS will put together a comprehensive education plan for your staff as well as a monitoring system and reporting to recommend and assist you to perform better.

Contact us today to receive a free introductory coding audit. Your reimbursement levels depend on it! 





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Bryanne Halfhill Bryanne Halfhill

7 Things to Look for in a Billing Company

Are you thinking about outsourcing your medical billing but aren’t sure what to look for in a revenue cycle management company? 

Here are some key points you should review with a potential company:

1) Software Flexibility 

Will the company work in any EMR system or will they force you to switch to their preferred EMR?

2) Full Service Billing 

Do they handle the entire life cycle of a claim? Do they offer verification and authorization services? Do they offer centralized scheduling services?

3) Team of Billers, Coders, and Denial Management Specialists 

What does their leadership team look like? What about their other employees? Are they specialized in different areas of the revenue cycle? 

4) Communication 

Will your team be in regular communication with the billing company? Will your patients have direct access to the billing team to ask questions? 

5) Monthly Audits 

Does the billing company’s leadership team meet with you on a monthly basis? What types of reporting are they willing to provide? 

6) Price Transparency 

Does the billing company charge a flat percentage of revenue collected? Are there hidden costs associated with their services? 

7) Credentialing 

Does the billing company have a credentialing department? What is the cost associated with this? What are their typical turn-around time for credentialing new providers? 

While this list doesn’t include everything you should look for in a potential billing company, it is a great place to start as you explore your options as a provider. Want to hear how LRS would answer these questions and any others you may have? Contact us today at inquiries@lincolnrs.com to learn more. 

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Bryanne Halfhill Bryanne Halfhill

Is Prior Authorization Killing Your Practice?

What is Prior Authorization?

Prior authorization (PA) is a requirement that the provider obtain approval from your health insurance plan to prescribe a specific medication or treatment. This health plan cost-control process often delays care unnecessarily at the expense of the patient’s health and the practice’s resources. 

What is the Process for Obtaining Prior Authorization? 

For most prior authorization, providers have to follow multiple steps. This can involve securing the correct form, filling it out with the required information, submitting the form to the plan, etc. In particular, holding time is long when trying to reach a customer service representative in the insurance company. The time to submit one prior authorization can reach up to 60 minutes. An AMA survey of 1,000 physicians completed in December 2018 found that physicians completed an average of 31 prior authorization requests each week! A study by Health Affairs further revealed that when the time is converted to dollars, practices spent an average of $68,274 per physician per year interacting with health plans. This is all lost time and cost that clinicians could instead be spending with and on their patients. 

What is the Clinical Impact of Prior Authorization?

The AMA study also found that more than nine in 10 said prior authorization rules had a negative impact on clinical outcomes. More than a fourth of respondents said these requirements had triggered a serious adverse event — a hospitalization, permanent injury or disability, or even a death — for a patient in their care.  

What Can You Do to Improve Your Prior Authorization Practices?

Insurance companies are not going to stop requiring prior authorization. In fact, insurance companies are increasing their PA requirements. Practices face many challenges with PA, including issues submitting documentation manually via fax or through the health plan’s proprietary web portal, as well as changing medical necessity requirements and appeals processes to meet each health plan’s requirements. By using a centralized system for PA, you can reduce your costs, improve your efficiency for submitting prior authorizations, and reduce denials for lack of PA. 

At LRS, our verification and authorization team understands how to work with payers. We have the institutional knowledge to complete PA's in a proficient and timely manner. Contact LRS today (inquiries@lincolnrs.com) to see how our centralized verification and authorization process can help to reduce your administrative costs and burdens. 

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Bryanne Halfhill Bryanne Halfhill

You're One Step Away from Sanity!

Are you tired of low revenue and high administrative costs due to your in-house medical biller? Is an EMR doing your billing and they are constantly MIA and your AR balance is extremely high? Check out why outsourcing to a revenue cycle management company like LRS might be for you:

Increased Revenues and Reduction in Costs 

It is generally accepted that the expenses of paying an in-house employee (think salary, benefits, office supplies, etc.) adds up to come than what is commonly paid out to a third-party billing team. You also eliminate the need to oversee employees. At LRS, we can provide you with a reduction in overhead costs, timely submission of claims and increased reimbursements. 

Increased Support and Reduction in Revenue Cycle Interruptions

If you have an in-house billing department, your operations and cash flow can be stalled if an employee takes vacation, gets sick, quits/gets fired, etc. By outsourcing your medical billing team, you ensure your claims are sent out timely, your cash is coming in on a regular basis, and there are no interruptions to your revenue cycle process. At LRS, there will never be an interruption in your service. If one of our team members is out, their role is covered by someone who is equally as equipped to meet your practice revenue cycle needs.

Increased Focus on Patient Care and Reduction in Administrative Burdens

Paperwork and operational headaches are killing practices. By outsourcing your billing, you can focus on what you do best: providing quality healthcare. At LRS, we are the operations masters. We can also relieve other administrative headaches and improve your processes. 

Increased Submission of Clean Claims and Reduction in Billing Errors

By outsourcing your billing, you ensure your claims are accurately submitted. This will reduce the number of denied and rejected claims. At LRS, we have a clean claim rate of over 95%. We also provide CPT code reviews so that you can increase your reimbursement and also address any billing issues that are due to clinician error on the backend. 

Do you want to learn more about our services and why outsourcing to LRS might be right for you? Contact us at inquiries@lincolnrs.com to set up a free strategic revenue consultation. 


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Bryanne Halfhill Bryanne Halfhill

Are You a PT Choosing Your Eval Complexity Codes?

This Cheat Sheet makes it less complex!

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Physical therapy evaluation codes require a therapist to take into account several components when choosing the proper evaluation complexity. When these components are combined, the therapist is able to make a clinical decision and choose the appropriate evaluation level.

To aide in the process, the APTA has released a Physical Therapy Evaluation Reference Table. This chart can assist you in your clinical decision-making based on the required components of each complexity code.

It is important to note that there is no difference in reimbursement in these complexity codes. Rather, the three codes assist the therapist in giving a more detailed description of the patient’s diagnosis.

Have questions or concerns regarding your coding?

Contact us today at inquiries@lincolnrs.com for a free 15-minute session with our clinical compliance specialist!

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Bryanne Halfhill Bryanne Halfhill

3 Essential Billing Benchmarks for Healthcare Practice Owners

It is essential as healthcare practice owners that you are monitoring your billing goals to ensure that your practice is healthy and thriving. 

Here are three billing benchmarks that LRS recommends being aware of at all times:

Denial/First Pass Payment Rates

How many denials are you receiving and how many claims are paid on the first try? Many factors go into these metrics including how accurate your insurance verifications are, how clean your claims are, and how timely your claims are submitted. A very efficient practice will have a denial rate under 5% and a first pass claim rate higher than 95%.

Percentage of Receivables over 120 Days

How quickly are you collecting the money you are owed? You should be aiming for less than 10% in this aging bucket. There are always going to be issues with specific claims but a healthy practice has at least 75% of their AR in under 60-days outstanding.

Payer Mix/Expected Revenue per Payer per Visit

Who are your top 5-10 payers? What are they paying you per visit? Your reimbursement rate is only as good as the payer mix of patients that you see.Maybe it is time to try to renegotiate contracts or consider going out-of-network with some insurances. LRS also recommends knowing what you are being paid per CPT code per payer per visit.

These are only a few of the KPI metrics you should be reviewing on a monthly basis. Do you see room for improvement in your practice? Contact us today at inquiries@lincolnrs.com to see how we can help you improve these essential benchmarks. 

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Bryanne Halfhill Bryanne Halfhill

Are You Attending PPS in Orlando?

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If you are attending, let us know!

We would love to set up a time to grab a quick cup of coffee and discuss how we can help increase your revenue and remove your administrative burdens.

We hope to see you in the Sunshine State!

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Bryanne Halfhill Bryanne Halfhill

Can Chiropractic Care Help Fight the Opioid Crisis?

Chronic pain exacts a terrible toll on human well-being. More than 10 percent of Americans suffer from pain every day, according to the National Institutes of Health, and many more suffer from it sporadically. Academic research has found that pain is one of the biggest sources of unhappiness. Because of chronic pain, the use of opioids has become a public-health crisis – playing a role in some 50,000 overdose deaths in the United States last year.

Chiropractic and other conservative (non-drug) approaches to pain management can be an important first line of defense against pain and addiction caused by the overuse of prescription opioid pain medications. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends safe alternatives like chiropractic care for the management of most non-cancer-related pain. Physical therapists partner with patients, their families, and other health care professionals to manage pain, often reducing or eliminating the need for opioids. 

According to the American Chiropractic Association, “In 2017, the American College of Physicians (ACP) updated its guidelines for the treatment of acute and chronic low back pain to recommend first using non-invasive, non-drug treatments before resorting to drug therapies. ACP’s guidelines, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine and based on a review of randomized controlled trials and observational studies, cite heat therapy, massage, acupuncture and spinal manipulation (a centerpiece of chiropractic care) as possible options for non-invasive, non-drug therapies for low back pain.”

In a new meta-analysis and systematic review, presented at the American Academy of Pain Medicine 2019 Annual Meeting, patients who visited a chiropractor for a musculoskeletal pain condition were 49% less likely to receive an opioid prescription than their counterparts who went to other healthcare providers.

Chiropractic care can help patients get to the bottom of their pain - not just mask it with medicine. Many payers already cover non-opioid pain management and treatment services to some degree, but they often limit the duration of services or require administrative actions that could create barriers to care. Given the massive opioid public health crisis and the scientific correlation between non-invasive pain management reducing the need for pain medicine, chiropractic care should be viewed as a first-line treatment for patients. 


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Bryanne Halfhill Bryanne Halfhill

Managing Your Accounts Receivable and Improving Your Cash Flow

Your accounts receivable report indicates how long insurance claims and patient balances have been outstanding. The lower the percentage outstanding, the better!

Take a look at your report and ask:

  • How big is your dollar amount in 120+?

  • Is greater than 10% of your outstanding claims aged beyond 120 days?

While your AR report on its surface doesn’t tell the whole story of your practice, it can give you a really good idea on why your cash flow may not be where you want it.

Has your current billing team been neglecting your outstanding claims and you think your AR is in really, really bad shape? We also have a process for that!

We complete a full insurance and patient AR clean-up in 90 days. Within that 90-day window, each insurance claim will either be paid, expected to be paid, or recommended for write-off. We also call each patient who has a balance outstanding over 90 days to encourage payment in full, to set up payment plans if appropriate, or determine if account collections is the next step. We can also help you implement a process for sending patient accounts to collections if you do not have one yet.

Even if your AR is not in dire need of repair, there are several ways we think LRS could improve on your current AR process. At LRS, we pride ourselves on our standardized A/R management system. We follow-up on every single claim that is outstanding past 90 days (30 days for Medicare). We track this information for you in your EMR system so both our team and yours know why a claim has not been paid and when it is expected to be paid. We are extremely motivated to collect on every penny you have outstanding and will follow-up and appeal, if necessary, each claim until it is collected.

Want to learn more about how we can help you turn your AR around and get your cash flow moving again? Contact us at inquiries@lincolnrs.com to learn more. Mention this blog and you will receive a complimentary AR assessment to see how LRS can get your collections back to where they should be! 

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Bryanne Halfhill Bryanne Halfhill

The Difference Between a Re-Eval and Progress Visit

When it is it appropriate to bill 97164?

Therapists often get confused between when they should bill a progress note and when they should bill a re-evaluation. However, there are extremely strict guidelines when it comes to using each code. 

Re-evaluations are not routine and shouldn’t be billed routinely. Progress notes are routine and are completed at every 10th visit or every 30 days (whichever comes first). 

According to Medicare, “Routine re-evaluations of expected progression in accordance with the plan of care, either during the episode of care or upon discharge, are not considered to be medically necessary separately billable services.” 

When medical necessity is supported, a re-evaluation (97164) is appropriate for:

  • A patient who is currently receiving therapy services and develops a newly diagnosed related condition e.g., a patient that is currently receiving therapy treatment for TKA. During the episode of care, the patient develops wrist pain. The clinician determines that the wrist pain is due to use of a walker which the patient is using as a result of the TKA. In this scenario, the wrist pain is a condition that is related to the TKA. Therefore, it is reasonable for the clinician to provide a re-evaluation of the patient due to this related condition.

  • A patient who is currently receiving therapy services and demonstrates a significant improvement, decline, or change in condition or functional status which was not anticipated in the plan of care and necessitates additional evaluative services to maximize the patient’s rehabilitation potential.

If it is appropriate to bill a re-eval, what should it include? 

On November 10, 2016, CMS published the following information regarding the re-evaluation code:

97164 – Re-evaluation of physical therapy established plan of care, requiring these components:  An examination including a review of history and use of standardized tests and measures is required; and a revised plan of care using a standardized patient assessment instrument and/or measurable assessment of functional outcome

It is important to note that 97164 can be billed and bundled with other 97xxx codes with the addition of the 59 modifier to indicate the service is separate and distinct. It is also important to note that whenever a 59 modifier is on the claim, we need to indicate in the notes that the services are separate, distinct and medically necessary.

Still confused or have additional questions? Contact LRS at inquiries@lincolnrs.com and we can get them answered for you. 


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3 Ways to Improve Your Credentialing Process

Utilize a cloud based platform

Organizations such as the Center for Affordable Quality Healthcare (CAQH) can help you stay current and organized. The upfront time it takes to become enrolled with CAQH is undoubtedly worth the time and effort it saves you down the line. Another perk of such a platform, is that you are notified electronically and in real-time of any updates that need to be made to your account. Payers use this one-stop-shop to gather all your credentials, as opposed to you having to send it countless times.

Ensure data is accurate and current

Take the time to ensure all information being sent out for credentialing purposes is 100% accurate the first time. On average, a provider can expect the credentialing process to take 90 to 120 days. When information is inaccurate, this delays the process, resulting in loss revenue.

Communication is key

Follow-up, follow-up, follow-up! Communicate frequently with the payer you are credentialing with to ensure the process is progressing. Ask if there is anything additional they need. When you send documents, always ask for confirmation of receipt. These simple steps take a few minutes but can decrease your wait time, therefore increasing revenue!

Is your credentialing process overwhelming? Contact us today to see how we can help alleviate some of your administrative burden!

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Bryanne Halfhill Bryanne Halfhill

3 Operations Mistakes and How to Fix Them

Review Your Cancel/No Show Rate

Your Cancel/No Show rate shows your ability to get your patients to show up for their visits. A high rate of cancellations can be a sign that you are not selling your services and plans of care. Track this metric for all employees to see who could need motivating. 

Not Collecting Up Front

Your chances of collection from a patient drop 20% the minute they walk out the door. This is why it is extremely important to verify a patient’s benefits and collect patient responsibility amounts up front as much as possible. 

Too Many Denials 

A high first pass payment percentage is a sign of a successful billing team. Billers should be consistently reviewing their denial reasons to avoid them in the future. 

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What Are You Doing to Protect Your Bottom Line Against Declining Medicare Advantage Reimbursement Levels?

Since 2004, the number of beneficiaries enrolled in private Medicare plans has more than tripled from 5.3 million to 19 million in 2018. Over one third of Medicare beneficiaries are enrolled in an Advantage plan and enrollment is expected to continue to grow at a rate between 4 and 7% per year up to 50% of all enrollees by 2022.

Medicare Advantage programs are built on a framework that emphasizes savings and lowering prices for consumers. People like MA plans because they offer predictability, additional benefits, care coordination and lower estimated total annual healthcare costs than are offered by Original Medicare or supplement plans. Sounds great, right?

Not so fast.

If you are a provider, Medicare Advantage plans tend to reimburse significantly less than traditional Medicare.

Plante Moran completed a study looking at the effects of Medicare Advantage on Skilled Nursing Facility profits. In the third quarter of 2018, the average skilled nursing facility brought in $515 per Medicare patient day according to the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care (NIC), compared to $427 for Medicare Advantage plans and $209 for Medicaid.

Patients often don’t understand that Medicare Advantage is not Traditional Medicare. Patients can have high copays and other patient responsibility associated with their plans. This can lead to very difficult conversations whenever patients receive statements for their services.

For these reasons, it is essential that you are verifying patient benefits prior to their initial appointments. Several Medicare Advantage plans also require authorization for different services. If authorization is not obtained, then all services will be denied with no hope for recoupment.

Patients also need to be told up front what their responsibility is estimated to be and as a provider, you need to collect as much upfront as possible. Providers cannot afford to not collect the patient portion of Medicare Advantage plans because of how low the reimbursement is to begin with.

Do you have questions about how Medicare Advantage is impacting your bottom line? Contact us today to learn more about how LRS can help protect you against denials, increase your reimbursements, and keep you from becoming a patient collection agency.

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4 Steps to Improve Patient Collections

High deductible health plans are now the norm. Clinicians and practice owners are having to spend more and more time acting as a collection agency and have less and less time available to actually treat patients.

What can you do to help improve your upfront patient collections so you aren’t spending so much time tracking down payments after time of service?

  1. Verify Patient Benefits: Verify eligibility and benefit coverage before the initial appointment. After verification, you can estimate how much the patient will owe per visit and can collect that estimated payment at time of service.

  2. Communicate: No patient likes to be surprised by a large or unexpected bill. Following verification, let your patients know how much of their deductible they have remaining and what that means for their patient responsibility.

  3. Have a Process and Follow-Up Process for Patient Statements: Send them regularly and following a certain number of statements, call patients to remind them payment is needed and if it is still not made, have a process in place to send patients to a collection agency.

  4. Hire the Right People: Make sure your front desk, billing, and operations staff are all on board with the patient collections process and can effectively and accurately verify benefits and communicate with patients.

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Struggling with Your EMR? You Aren't Alone

A decade ago, the U.S. government claimed that ditching paper medical charts for electronic records would make health care better, safer and cheaper.

Ten years and $36 billion later, the digital revolution has gone awry, an investigation by Kaiser Health News and Fortune magazine has found.

Read more investigation takeaways on NPR: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2019/03/18/704475396/why-the-promise-of-electronic-health-records-has-gone-unfulfilled

Do these struggles feel similar to what you are dealing with in your practice? Gaps of interoperability? Lack of support? Burned out? Contact us today to see how we can help you function better within your EMR and alleviate some of the administrative burden associated with EMRs.

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Bryanne Halfhill Bryanne Halfhill

Medicare Advantage Eats Into Profits

As Medicare Advantage enrollment surges, these alternative plans are eating into Skilled Nursing Facility profits.

Plante Moran completed a study looking at the effects of Medicare Advantage on Skilled Nursing Facility profits. In the third quarter of 2018, the average skilled nursing facility brought in $515 per Medicare patient day according to the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care (NIC), compared to $427 for managed Medicare and $209 for Medicaid. Trends also continued downward when looking at length of stay. The average stay was 41 days in 2016 to 38 days in 2017.

Facilities and clinics need to be strategic when looking at their new payer mixes on how to not let these changes impact their bottom line. This is where LRS comes in! Contact us today to see how to protect your business from decreased reimbursements.

Learn more about the Plante Moran study on Skilled Nursing News: https://skillednursingnews.com/2019/03/medicare-advantage-eats-into-margin-gains-for-skilled-nursing-facilities/

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Bryanne Halfhill Bryanne Halfhill

Medicare Advantage Plan Enrollment Surges

Even though the policy perspective of “Medicare for All” will be dominating the 2020 coverage, Medicare Advantage plans are dominating the market today.

Anthem’s Medicare Advantage enrollment is up over 35% to more than 1 million enrollees.

“Our individual Medicare Advantage business is on track to achieve our mid-double digit growth target,” Anthem CEO Gail Boudreaux told analysts during the company’s fourth quarter earnings call last week. “In total, we estimate our Medicare Advantage growth will exceed 20% by the end of 2019.”

Cigna’s Medicare Advantage and United HealthCare’s enrollments are also both up from last year.

What does this mean for your bottom line though? Medicare Advantage plans typically have lower reimbursement, more authorization requirements, and more up-front patient responsibility. These new plans can have a significant impact on your bottom line as your payer mix shifts from traditional Medicare to Medicare Advantage.

Don’t get left behind! Contact us today to see how we can help you navigate these reimbursement changes in 2019.

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Bryanne Halfhill Bryanne Halfhill

High-Deductible Plans Leave Providers Fed Up With Being Debt Collectors

It has been a recurring theme for providers over the last few years: High deductible and cost-sharing health plans leave providers with both the literal and figurative bill. The old danger for providers were patients with no insurance but now that (nearly) everyone is covered by a plan under the Affordable Care Act, the pains are coming from patients whose plans have sky high patient responsibility.

Now, providers are having to spend their time trying to get patients to pay their bills instead of being able to focus on actually treating patients. Even large medical companies with national operations are facing the problem. Quest Diagnostics Inc., the lab-testing giant, said 20 percent of services billed to patients in the third quarter of this year went unpaid, costing the company about $80 million in lost revenue.

There are ways to help your practice avoid lost revenue from unpaid patient statements and to help you as a provider get back to focusing on treatment instead of being a debt collector. Contact us today at inquiries@lincolnrs.com to see how LRS can improve your patient collections processes.

Read more at: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-11-15/doctors-are-fed-up-with-being-turned-into-debt-collectors

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Bryanne Halfhill Bryanne Halfhill

Medicare Announces 2019 Cost-Sharing

Every year, Medicare updates the premiums that you pay for Medicare Parts A, B and D, as well as your deductibles, copays, and coinsurance. Sometimes, the Medicare Part B increase is significant. But luckily, that is not the case this year.

Original Medicare has two parts, which provide inpatient coverage and outpatient coverage. Most Medicare beneficiaries pay nothing for their Part A hospital (inpatient) benefits because they have usually pre-paid for these benefits via FICA payroll deductions throughout their working years.

Just like insurance that you’ve participated in during your working years, Medicare has cost-sharing that you pay as you use your benefits. These come in the form of deductibles, copays and coinsurance.

The Medicare Part A deductible will increase by $24 for $1364 next year. This covers your first 60 days in the hospital. Afterward, beneficiaries pay a daily copay of $341 per day for Days 61–90 and $682/day for Days 91–150. If you have a stay in a skilled nursing facility, you’ll pay $170.50 per day for Days 21–100.

When it comes to Medicare Part B (what is used to pay for outpatient services), next year, most beneficiaries will pay $135.50/month for Part B. This is an increase of only $1.50 per month from the 2018 Part B premiums.

The Part B deductible is also going up, but only by $2. It will be $185 in 2019. Once that deductible is satisfied, Part B will pay 80% of your covered expenses. You are responsible for the other 20% unless you have supplemental coverage in place to cover that for you.

Beneficiaries can check their estimated 2019 Medicare premiums by logging into their MyMedicare.gov account.

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Prioritizing PT as Front-Line Treatment for Chronic Pain

Chronic pain exacts a terrible toll on human well-being. More than 10 percent of Americans suffer from pain every day, according to the National Institutes of Health, and many more suffer from it sporadically. Academic research has found that pain is one of the biggest sources of unhappiness. Because of chronic pain, the use of opioids has become a public-health crisis – playing a role in some 50,000 overdose deaths in the United States last year.

By recognizing the importance of non-opioid therapies, insurance companies could improve outcomes, increase cost-effectiveness, and reduce opioid use for lower back pain by expanding non-pharmacological coverage such as physical therapy and chiropractic care, according to a new study published in JAMA Network Open.

Expanding beneficiary access to physical therapy, chiropractic, and acupuncture services may allow payers to provide clinically-proven solutions for temporary pain without relying on opioid prescriptions.

Physical therapists partner with patients, their families, and other health care professionals to manage pain, often reducing or eliminating the need for opioids. Research has shown that a simple education session with a physical therapist can lead to improved function, range of motion, and decreased pain.

Many payers already cover non-opioid pain management and treatment services to some degree, but they often limit the duration of services or require administrative actions that could create barriers to care. The study found that sixty-seven percent of commercial and MA plans had visit limits on physical therapy and 62 percent of plans had limits on chiropractic visits.

Given the massive opioid public health crisis, it is time for providers and insurance companies to prioritize physical therapy as a front-line treatment for chronic pain.

 

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