Eyeworld

EW MEETING REPORTER 174 March 2015 Medicare update E. Ann Rose, president of Rose & Associates, Duncanville, Texas, gave an update to practice administrators on Medicare. She highlighted such topics as the Physician Fee Schedule, ASC Fee Schedule, 2015 CPT chang- es, sequestration, Multiple Procedure Payment Reduction (MPPR), ICD-9 and ICD-10, CCI sub-modifiers, computerized physician order entry (CPOE), and the 2015 OIG Work Plan. Ms. Rose said that billers and coders must make sure to have the most recent Physician Fee Schedule. The 2015 ASC Fee Schedule saw the conversion factor for ASCs increase to 1.4% for facilities meeting quality reporting requirements. This results in small increases in ASC facility fee payments, she said. As far as the ASC is concerned, the only supply you can bill separately is the process- ing, preserving, and transporting of corneal tissue. Meanwhile, be aware of "pass-through" drugs, she said, or drugs that are allowed to be payable separately to the ASC. Multiple Procedure Payment Reduction (MPPR) is still in effect, Ms. Rose said. The technical com- ponent of second and subsequent tests performed on the same patient on the same day is reduced by 20%. CMS expects physicians to continue treating patients under the same medical standards and will monitor practice patterns to ensure MPPR is not being bypassed, she said. There were no changes to the ICD-9-CM coding manual for 2015; however, everyone should be prepar- ing for ICD-10, she said. The target- ed go-live date for ICD-10 is Oct. 1, 2015. "One of the important things is getting the doctors on board," she said. Getting doctors, technicians, billers, and others in the practice involved is extremely important because the go-live date is less than 7 months away. Editors' note: Ms. Rose has no related financial interests. Presbyopia-correcting IOLs Kerry Solomon, MD, Mount Pleasant, S.C., Elizabeth Yeu, MD, Norfolk, Va., and Eric Donnenfeld, Reporting from ASCRS•ASOA SideXSide 2015, Aventura, Fla., February 12–15

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