The American Chiropractic Association (ACA) has alerted us that the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee is conducting a review of the Medicare program. The House is working with the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA), the agency responsible for the Medicare program, to "eliminate waste, mismanagement and bureaucratic delays" in the program.
The ACA, you'll recall, is suing the HCFA over its Medicare+ regulations, which is Medicare's managed care plan.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee has set up a web page to survey Medicare providers. That website is: www.house.gov/commerce/hcfasurvey.htm. The survey covers such areas as problems in filing claims; understanding regulations; the relationship between provider and carriers; audits; and appeals.
It's not every day that Congress asks for specific input about your practice. Take this opportunity to report your experience with the Medicare program.
You'll particularly like survey question 11: "As a provider of health care, what recommendations would you make to Congress on how we can improve our federal health care delivery system? Please provide specifics."
Back pain? Blame the psoas. Seems as if everybody wants to dive headfirst into their psoas at the first sign of trouble with the lumbopelvic-hip region. Perhaps no other muscle is blamed more for causing problems than the psoas. Yes, it is an important stabilizer of the lumbar spine, but it shouldn't be the only one on which you focus. There is another big player on the scene: the iliacus.
Two closely related viruses of herpes simplex, HSV-1 and HSV-2, can infect the human body. HSV-1 mostly infects the gums and skin, although it can cause more serious infection in the brain. HSV-2 mostly infects around the genital area. Infection with the virus can be unsightly and painful, especially for HSV-2.
What’s the simplest way to ensure prompt payment for your claims? Ensure that the insurance payer has no reason to deny them. Submitting a “clean claim” from the start can have a more significant impact on your net collections than any other step in your billing workflow. Net collections and accounts receivable (AR) can improve significantly when claims are clean from the start.
