The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will hold two national provider education calls for professionals and hospitals about registration for the Medicare Electronic Health Records (EHR) Incentive Program.

The OIG work plan for fiscal year 2011 describes audits and evaluations underway and under development. The plan provides readers with insight into the main areas under investigation by the OIG and outlines the OIG's enforcement and compliance activities. Login to find out the sleep-related initiatives included in the work plan for 2011.

Physicians who are identified by Medicare as primary care physicians with a specific percent of Part B allowed charges for primary care services are eligible for a 10 percent bonus payment. Physicians wishing to confirm eligibility must visit contractor websites.

Recently, the four area DME MACs published draft Local Coverage Determinations (LCDs) addressing oral appliance therapy for obstructive sleep apnea. These four policies took effect Jan. 3, 2011.

Beginning in November 2010, the AASM sent out regular updates to members related to the 2011 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) Final Rule. To avoid confusion and help clarify payment changes, we have developed an overview of the MPFS Final Rule including a timeline of events, national payment information, instructions for finding local payment information and a glossary of key terms.

New legislation and recent corrections to the 2010 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) call for reprocessing of a large volume of Medicare fee-for-service claims. Given this large workload, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is taking steps to ensure that new claims coming into the Medicare program are processed timely and accurately, even as the retroactive adjustments are being made.

Effective Oct. 1, 2013, diagnostic coding in all health-care settings will change from ICD-9 to ICD-10.  To accommodate the changes to the code structure resulting from this transition, CMS is requiring an update to the transaction standards used for electronic health-care claims.  The current standards, Version 4010/4010A, must be upgraded to Version 5010 by Jan. 1, 2012.