CMS: Government Shutdown Won’t Jeopardize ICD-10 Transition While officials from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services could not say definitively on a media call Thursday what the status of the agency’s new ICD-10 Coordination Center and its ombudsman would be in the event of a government shutdown on Oct. 1, they did maintain that the transition itself will go […]

Athletic TIPS™ Launches! The Foundation for Chiropractic Progress (F4CP) proudly announces that Athletic TIPS™ (Towards Injury Prevention in Sports), a national, not-for-profit organization that drives expanded awareness and education around the role of multi-disciplinary care in the recognition, management and prevention of sports-related injuries, has launched its website at www.TIPS4Sports.org. The organization will begin rolling out […]

Urgent ICD-10 Reminder and Update for Personal Injury and Work Comp Personal Injury payers are not governed by HIPAA, they do get to elect on an individual basis whether or not to transition to ICD-10 diagnosis as of 10/01/2015. Providers are urged to contact those Work Comp and PI payers as soon as possible so as […]

ACA Statement on Subluxation ICD-10 Coding The World Health Organization, which developed ICD-10, describes subluxation as, “a lesion or dysfunction in a joint or motion segment in which alignment, movement integrity and or physiological function are altered, although contact between joint surfaces remains intact. It is essentially a functional entity which may influence biomechanical and […]

American Chiropractic Association to Host Twitter Chat on Prescription Painkiller Epidemic #PainFreeNation scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 29, at 2 p.m. ET Arlington, Va. – The American Chiropractic Association (ACA) is hosting its first Twitter chat focused on addressing the overuse and abuse of opioid painkillers in the United States on Tuesday, Sept. 29, from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. ET using […]

On ICD-10 Release Date, CMS Says Four States Exempt On Oct. 1, the ICD-10 release date, four states’ Medicaid programs will not be converting to ICD-10 codes, according to CMS. Everyone else, however, will. California, Maryland, Montana and Louisiana “are the only states that have programmed the backwards crosswalk into their claims processing systems for their […]

Foundation for Chiropractic Progress Aligns with National Fibromyalgia & Chronic Pain Association, Participates at Inaugural Conference:  Treating and Preventing Chronic Pain Treating and Preventing (TAP) Chronic Pain Conference, Arlington, Virginia, October 8-10, 2015 CARMICHAEL, Calif. – September 03, 2015 – The Foundation for Chiropractic Progress (F4CP), a not-for-profit organization dedicated to raising awareness about the value of chiropractic care, is pleased […]

Florida Doctors: TENS units-Do I need a license? Many doctors have asked me if they need a special license to bill DME units like a TENS unit.  The short answer is– YES, you do need a license.  Most insurance companies are starting to catch on to this special license and they are denying DME (Durable […]

Earlier this year, four separate pieces of legislation were introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives and one in the U.S. Senate that would expand patient access to the services provided by doctors of chiropractic in several federal health care delivery systems.   It is very important that doctors of chiropractic and chiropractic students immediately contact their […]

On April 16, President Obama signed into law House Resolution 2, known as the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015. This legislation permanently repealed the flawed Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula, the reason for the endless cycle of “doc fixes” that have temporarily staved off 17 drastic Medicare reimbursement cuts since 2003. However, the new […]

On July 1, the Medicare Conversion Factor goes up by 0.5% which will impact the Medicare allowed amount by some degree. Keep in mind that the CF is only one of the factors used in the calculation of the Medicare allowed – but it should have a positive impact for chiropractic physicians — a slight payment […]

Since April 2015, three proposed bills have been submitted regarding some facet of the current ICD-10 transition. What are the odds of a bill to simply eliminate ICD-10 passing? Or legislation requiring HHS to conduct “comprehensive, end-to-end testing to assess whether Medicare claims based on the ICD-10 standard is fully functioning? In addition, we have heard chatter that a bill creating […]

Great News!! The Foundation for Chiropractic Progress (F4CP) recently shared a press release with the FCA, announcing the publication of its latest position paper entitled: “The Growing Role of Doctors of Chiropractic in Corporate On-Site Clinics.” The paper reviews current industry trends, and articulates the role of chiropractic care to optimize clinical and financial management […]

President Obama signed legislation this month that will permanently change how Medicare pays doctors, a rare bipartisan achievement by Democrats and Republicans that will end years of short-term fixes. The bill, known as the “doc fix,” overhauls a 1997 law that aimed to slow Medicare’s growth by limiting reimbursements to doctors. It resulted in a […]

Chiropractic documentation education, new quality-reporting incentives included in measure Arlington, Va. – The U.S. Senate, following the earlier lead of the House, late last night passed a long-awaited “permanent fix” to the flawed Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula used to determine provider reimbursement levels under the federal Medicare program. The plan would give physicians treating Medicare patients, […]

The CMS Innovation Center has announced a new ACO model: the Next Generation Accountable Care Organization (ACO) Model of payment and care delivery, which they state “offers a new opportunity in accountable care—one that sets predictable financial targets, enables providers and beneficiaries greater opportunities to coordinate care, and aims to attain the highest quality standards […]

Private healthcare providers cannot sue state Medicaid agencies over low reimbursement rates, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Tuesday in a 5-4 decision (PDF), reversing a lower court’s ruling. Providers had argued in a case, Armstrong v. Exceptional Child Center Inc., that suing over low rates is sometimes the only way to enforce federal payment requirements. Otherwise, low rates could lead to fewer providers […]

The bill introduced Thursday to replace Medicare’s sustainable growth-rate formula for physician pay would also significantly alter federal policy on health information technology. Lawmakers avoided making any changes to the timeline for requiring the industry to switch to ICD-10 diagnostic and procedure codes. Last year’s temporary “doc fix” included a stealthily added delay of the conversion.But the legislation’s merit-based incentive payment […]

Congress needs to enact legislation that will permanently repeal the flawed Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula before the March 31, 2015 deadline. Medicare Part B providers of all types, including doctors of chiropractic, will face devastating cuts to the payment rates if action is not taken. These payment cuts will also impact patients by threatening their ability […]

The Council on Chiropractic Guidelines and Practice Parameters has updated their guideline so it can be placed on the National Guidelines Clearinghouse site. This is very important for our profession to ensure that stakeholders that don’t have our best interest at heart are not using bogus guidelines to restrict care/access, and to ultimately help providers […]