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Tip of the month:
Send PCS Before Transport
Have the requesting facility submit the completed Physician Certification Statement (PCS)
before
scheduled transports. This will allow your staff time to review the PCS to assure that the form is completed correctly, there is valid medical reason for transport, and appropriate signatures are included.
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Review of the
'Inappropriate Payments and Questionable Billing
for Medicare Part B Ambulance Transports.'
Report
by Grant Helferich
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This
report, being 36 pages in length, reviewed 7.3 million ambulance transports from 15,164 ambulance suppliers (institutional based ambulance providers not included). Patient care reports from the first six months of 2012, January 1st - June 30th, were reviewed.
The Office of Inspector General's (OIG) office reviewed these areas of ambulance transports:
- Transport destinations
- Transport levels
- Distance of urban transports
- Geographic locations where the beneficiaries who received transport resided.
- Other Medicare services that beneficiaries received
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The report identified that for the first half of 2012, Center for Medicare and Medicare Services (CMS) paid $24 million for ambulance transports not meeting sufficient payment justification, including issues with medical necessity and transportation to non-covered facilities. The report also indicated that one in five ambulance suppliers had questionable billing practices.
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Grant Helferich
Grant is employed as EMS Advisor/Business Development Manager with Omni EMS Billing in Wichita, Kansas. He is a former member of the KEMSA Board and has also served as the treasurer and president of the KEMSA Administrator's Society. He was certied as an EMT, EMT-I, M.I.C.T. , and T.O. II. Grant has worked as an EMT, EMT-I, M.I.C.T., Field Supervisor, Flight Paramedic, Cardiovascular Specialist, Assistant Director, and Director of EMS.
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"The Wrong Goodbye" is the brain child of singer/songwriter Maurice Davis. The mission is to raise awareness, remove the stigmatism that keeps people silent and help bring suicide to an end.
... read more.
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As a medic, it can easy to focus on all the new equipment and technology now at our fingertips. However, let this not distract us to the extent that we can no longer stop and listen to what people are saying around us, including the patient. There has been a saying in the EMS community for years that reads, "treat the patient not your monitor".
... read more.
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Omni Billing Services was founded in 1993 and has steadily built a reputation across the country for vastly improving the billing revenue of EMS organizations and medical offices by providing exemplary customer service in the process.
Our mission everyday is to maximize our clients' time and revenue through the use of the latest technology, continued education, and the best customer service available.
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