ICD-10-CM diagnosis codes will be required on all claims for services provided on and after October 1. In her keynote address at a recent healthcare convention, CMS Administrator Marilyn Tavenner indicated that the implementation date has been delayed several times and that it’s time to move forward.

In anticipation of the October 1, 2014 ICD-10 implementation deadline, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that it will conduct end-to-end testing of ICD-10 claims prior to the implementation date. A Medicare Learning Network article, also released this week, describes CMS’s phased approach to testing.

This month, the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) published its annual Work Plan describing the projects and reviews it will undertake in 2014.  Sleep has been featured throughout the OIG Work Plan in recent years.

Last week the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that it will extend the deadline for physicians and other eligible professionals to attest to meaningful use for the 2013 reporting year of the Medicare Electronic Health Record (EHR) incentive program.

A new American Medical Association (AMA) report depicts how shifting the nation's health care system from a fee-for-service, payment-based model to another model could be difficult because nearly one-third of all physician compensations are based on personal productivity, which might incentivize quantity over quality

On Jan. 24, 2014 the AASM submitted a comment letter to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) regarding the 2014 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule final rule.

This month the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) released a new report: Use and Characteristics of Electronic Health Record Systems Among Office-based Physician Practices.

In a Jan. 14, 2014 rule the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that it will begin responding to requests made under the Freedom of Information Act for physician payment information.

Today the American Academy of Sleep Medicine launched an updated version of The AASM Manual for the Scoring of Sleep and Associated Events: Rules, Terminology, and Technical Specifications, the definitive reference for sleep technologists who perform and score sleep studies and for physicians who interpret polysomnographic recordings.