May 19, 2010 Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Special Open Door Forum: Medicare Provider & Supplier Enrollment

by Mary Pat Whaley www.Managemypractice.com

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will hold a Special Open Door Forum (ODF) to discuss Medicare provider enrollment issues. During this call, CMS staff will discuss:

• The May 5, 2010 provider enrollment regulation titled, “Medicare and Medicaid Programs; Changes in Provider and Supplier Enrollment, Ordering and Referring, and Documentation Requirements; and Changes in Provider Agreements (CMS-6010-IFC)”
• Medicare ordering and referring issues, including physician notification
• Documentation requirements
• Internet-based Provider Enrollment, Chain and Ownership System (PECOS)
• Physician, non-physician practitioner, provider and supplier organizations
• Upcoming availability of Internet-based PECOS for DMEPOS suppliers
• Pharmacy accreditation issues
• Advanced diagnostic imaging accreditation
• Provider and supplier reporting responsibilities
• Revalidation efforts

May 19, 2010 3:00PM – 5:00PM ET 2:00 PM – 4:00 PM CT

Open Door Forum Instructions:

Capacity is limited so dial in early. You may begin dialing into this forum as early as 2:45 PM ET.

Dial: 1-800-603-1774

Reference Conference ID 61448973

Read my post on the date change for PECOS enrollment that relates to CMS-6010-IFC here.

Related posts:
1. CMS to Hold Open Door Forum on Medicare Provider and Supplier Enrollment via PECOS On February 17, 2010 from 2:00PM – 3:30PM ET the...

2. Forget January 3, 2011! PECOS Date Moved 6 Months Closer – Referring & Supplying Providers New Date is July 6, 2010 Physicians and “eligible” providers received a jolt today in the...

CMS Announces Delay in PECOS Use Until January 3, 2011 NOTE: On May 5, 2010 it was announced that the...

New HealthPort Data Elements

HealthPort Provides New Data Elements!

If you are a CENTRICITY client, you can disregard this post.

HealthPort has recently released a lot of new data elements from their PM system to DataPlus. There are so many new elements, that there is no way for us to include all of them in one release, as it may cause some clients difficulty with hard drive space.

I am asking each and every HealthPort user to please take this short survey indicating your needs for these new data elements, so that we can prioritize the release. If you have others within your practice that you feel need to participate in this important survey, please feel free to forward this to as many users as you feel appropriate.

This survey is extremely important! Although the new data elements will only be available to clients on HealthPort V11, we are asking all clients, regardless of their current version to respond.

Take this survey

Thank you so much for your business and participating in this extremely important survey, this will allow us to develop a new release more quickly and efficiently. If you have any questions at all, please feel free to email me!

Sincerely,

Frank Trew

DataPlus

DataBytes Newsletter from DataPlus

DataBytes
A Newsletter from DataPlus
May 2010

Communications: Changing with the times...

For a long time, I resisted the call to Facebook, Twitter and other so called "Social Media" sites, however, as Bob Dylan wrote..."These times, they are a-changing". This month, we have launched our own Facebook and Twitter accounts to better communicate and serve our clients.

Postings on either of these sites will update the other, so you do not have to subscribe to both. The postings will be in the form of support tips and reminders. Our "followers" will also be able to ask questions on either site, which will be answered for everyone to see. Expect to see these updates several times a week, directly from our support staff.

We have also partnered with my very dear friend, Mary Pat Whaley of ManageMyPractice.com (see announcement below), as a practice management resource for our clients to use, free of charge.

You can follow DataPlus on either Twitter or Facebook, by clicking the links below. As always, we appreciate your business, and welcome comments on how we can improve our products and services.

Remember, to follow us on Facebook, be sure to click the "Like" button on the top of the Facebook page.

Frank Trew
Founder / COO

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DataPlus proudly presents a new FREE service to its clients -
ManageMyPractice.com

This healthcare practice management resource/blog will be available to you from your CustomPlus Reporting Main Menu under "DataPlus Today", as well as our Facebook and Twitter - beginning this week!

Managemypractice.com is a blog founded and edited by Mary Pat Whaley, a practice administrator in Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina. The blog, updated bi-weekly, provides a wealth of information to other practice managers, including regulatory updates, collection best practices, IT solutions, and EMR management.


Mary Pat is Board Certified in Healthcare Management and a Fellow in the American College of Medical Practice Executives. She has worked in healthcare and healthcare management for 25 years and has authored and published many peer articles and a book, "30 Days to a Front-End Patient Collection Program."

Previously the Chief Operating Officer of Eagle Physicians, Mary Pat initiated the first installation of DataPlus in 2000. She assisted us greatly in developing the some of the reports that our clients enjoy today.

This service is provided free of charge to everyone. Neither DataPlus nor Managemypractice.com receives any monies in exchange for this service. I encourage you to look for her blog updates, directly on your CustomPlus menu, and the DataPlus blog at http://www.mydataplus.com/

**Note: You must have the new CustomPlus menu (red with white background) in order to view this feed from your CustomPlus menu. All users on Excel 2007 already have this new menu.

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Congratulations!

Susan Hurst recently got married and is now Susan Dean!

Please update your email address to reflect this change to sdean@mydataplus.com.

It must be running in the family, because Susan's daughter Heather is getting married in late May and will be living in Destin, Florida!

Contratulations to you both!

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Dashboard

Our new Dashboard reporting module has been hugely
successful...nearly every client who has seen it, has purchased it!

So why has it been so popular?

- Its all the important practice information on one page that you have been asking for!

- The price is right!

So what is keeping you from moving forward with this tool?

For more information on our Dashboard, visit our products page at http://www.mydataplus.com/ where you can view and download the brochure,

and even see a video demonstration.

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Important Information about SQL Server 2005 & 2008

If you have plans of upgrading your server to SQL 2005, you MUST call us before doing so! Several changes must be made by our support staff BEFORE the upgrade is done.

DataPlus DOES NOT yet support SQL 2008.

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DataPlus Support

How do YOU prefer to contact support? Our industry leading support services can be reached many different ways, and you have the choice of contact methods!

You may:

- Call support directly 1-888-688-3282
- Email Support: support@mydaaplus.com
- Establish direct link to support via our website, or within CustomPlus
- Create / Manage work orders from our client only web portal www.mydataplus.com

Whatever makes YOU more comfortable! So take your pick from our support methods and you can be assured you will be assisted by a friendly, efficient and helpful representative

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Excel 2007 Upgrades

We encourage our clients to upgrade to the current version of Microsoft Excel 2007. There are many, many reasons why you should, and you can read about them by visiting Our Blog.

It is imperative that you call us to upgrade your CustomPlus reports prior to using Excel 2007 on your reports.

Failing to do so will literally break the reports, and we will have to manually re-create them which is not covered under support. The charge for correcting the problem is $250.00 per hour, is very time consuming. Upgrading prior to using Excel 2007 only cost $450.00!

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On Line Forums

If you have not visited our forums yet, you really should! Our forums provide essential support information and quick tips for all our users. You can even sign up to watch a forum and receive an email anytime something new is posted. The support forums provide information on our most common support issues and "how to's".

We also have a section for each PM that we support and for every speciality that is geared just for our clients to communicate with each other.

Just to go http://www.mydataplus.com support and forums to access this very beneficial information.

___________________________________________________________________

Did you know?

We Can Help You With...

Additional Training
Custom Programming
CustomReports
Practice Consultations
Additional Modules
Conract Managment
Payment Audit
Dashboard Reports

Call us at 888.688.3282 or email sales@mydataplus.com

ARRA Changes Rules for HIPAA – Did You Miss These Three February Deadlines?

by Mary Pat Whaley

www.Managemypractice.com


With so much going on in healthcare, it would not surprise me if a lot of practices missed the February 2010 deadline for three expanded HIPAA rules. This expansion was dictated by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act passed by Congress in February 2009.


If you haven’t already, get started now with the new requirements.

1. New obligations for business associates (BA) – February 17, 2010
Remember that a BA is a person or organization outside of your entity with whom you share protected health information (PHI) so they may provide services to you. Good examples are your billing service, collection agency, attorney, consultant, computer vendors, attorneys and providers of documentation abstracting or coding services. Under HITECH, BA have the same responsibilities for breaches as the healthcare entity does, but it is the healthcare organization’s responsibility to have an updated, signed BA agreement in place that describes this new responsibility. Here is an excellent example of a BA agreement (first link under Publications) that you can download and tweak for your practice.



2. New disclosure agreement provision – February 18, 2010
This is a big one! Patients now may waive their right to have you file their medical insurance, pay for your services themselves and request that their medical information NOT be disclosed to their insurance plan or any other entity. In other words, patients may elect to become “self-insured”. I recommend that you create a new financial class for these patients so they neither fall into the standard self-pay/financial assistance class or into their actual insurance class. These patients, if you have any, will need to be identified according to their wishes, which could mean that they want you to file insurance for some services and not for others. This means their record must be tagged for what records can be released and what records cannot. There could be an argument made either way for whether or not these patients should receive self-pay discounts that you have in place for your non-insured patients. I would be interested to know how different groups have decided to handle this. There are sample forms for PHI disclosure accounting and for patients to request an accounting of PHI disclosures in the Manage My Practice Library under Operations.



3. Information breach notification – February 22, 2010
We’ve heard a lot about this one as the media (along with HHS) must now be notified if a PHI breach involves 500 people or more. Breaches are being reported weekly as non-encrypted laptops are stolen or repurposed, and as copier hard drives (story here) go unnoticed as a security risk. If a breach involves 500 people or less, each individual must receive written notice with details of the breach, the information disclosed, and the steps being taken by the practice or entity to avoid any future breaches, as well as explaining the rights of the patient(s) in protecting their private healthcare information. Several of my employees have received notification letters from health plans and they have been horrified that this could happen. Note that entities that secure health information through encryption or destruction don’t have to provide notification in the event of a breach!



Enforcement is also beefed up.
Criminal penalties will apply to covered entities that violate privacy rules AND to those organizations’ individual employees (can you track who accesses whose records when?) Civil penalties have been increased and harmed individuals may share in the booty. Probably most importantly, HITECH gives state attorneys general the power to enforce HIPAA rules.



Other resources:


HHS FAQ on HIPAA Privacy


AMA HIPAA Resources


AAFP HIPAA Resources


Healthcare Blog Listing



Related posts:
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DataPlus Support Open During Severe Floods

May 3, 2010

Due to severe flooding in Nashville over the weekend, parts of our service center will be closed today, however, our support system is fully functional and staffed.

Our office lines are on auto answer, so by pressing 1 you will be automatically be routed to a support representative. You may all access support by email at support@mydataplus.com, or via direct connect through our on line support system at mydataplus.com.

We appreciate your patience during this time, as you may experience delay's in obtaining a live person, however, we assure that every call will be returned within a reasonable time, as our support staff are located throughout the southeastern United States and not necessarily affected by this disaster.

Our accounting and administrative offices will re-open when conditions permit.

You may reach our support staff directly as well:

Susan Hurst: 731-988-5994

Gabe White: 772-879-0444

Thank you for your patience during this situation, and as always, thank you for choosing DataPlus!

02-01-2010 CMS Updates Available

2010 CMS Updates Now Ready for DataPlus

Clients!

The 2010 CMS Updates are now available for download into DataPlus. These updates include:

• RVU's
• Medicare Fee Schedules
• CPT Codes
• ICD-9 Codes
• Exempt Codes

it is very important that you update your system, in order for your data to reflect current information! Simply follow the steps below to update your database. This update can be done from ANY computer that runs DataPlus (it does not need to be run from the server).

Please contact our support team with any questions by phone at

888.688.3282 or email at support@mydataplus.com.

To perform your update...

NOTE: You MUST have administrator rights to perform this update.

From the DataPlus main menu:

• Select Utilities
• Select Check for CMS Updates
• Select Continue
• CMS updates that are available to download will have a check mark next to them
• Select continue
• You will see a Processing bar for each update
• You will see "Updated" in blue lettering when the update(s) are complete
• Select OK

HealthPort Users: Data will not show on reports until after you have completed a month end, and you have data with service dates in 2010.

Centricity Users: Data will not show until you have completed a system close in 2010 AND your nightly update has run and reports refreshed.

11-09-09- Welcome Bear Lake CHC

DataPlus welcomes Bear Lake Community Health Centers as a client!

DataPlus Welcomes Northeast Oklahoma Community Health

DataPlus is proud to welcome Northeast Oklahoma Community Health Centers as a client!

09-29-09 DataPlus Welcomes Valley Health Systems

DataPlus is proud to welcome Valley Health System's as its newest client! Valley Health is a large hospital system located in Winchester, VA that owns and/or manages over 20 physician practices.

09-01-09 Welcome Atlantic Urology Associates

DataPlus is proud to welcome Atlantic Urology Associates as a client. Atlantic Urology, with over 27 providers and uses HealthPort as it's practice management system.