The Genius Florida Seminar is BACK!

   

Genius Healthcare Office Solutions:
The 2013 Florida Seminar

February 1st - Register Now!
9am - 5 pm
$99.00 Per Person
@ Crowne Plaza
200 E. Gregory St.
Pensacola, FL 32501
850.433.3336

More Information
586.751.9080 or seminars@geniussolutions.com
Topics Include:

• Best Office Practices
• Office Compliance Plans
• THOMAS Tips & Tricks
• Eligibility in THOMAS
• ICD-10
• Tech Talk
• EHR
• And More!

*Registration Deadline is January 21st.*

Happy 2013!

Wishing You a Prosperous &

Happy New Year!

 

Genius will be closed Monday December 31-January 1

Genius Closed Dec 24-25, 2012

Also note that we will be closing at noon, Friday, December 21st.

Christmas Holiday Time and Lights

For most people, no matter what their religious affiliation or preference, the Christmas time holiday season is the highlight of the year.  It may have varying significance to each, but all like to celebrate.  Hanukkah is a remembrance of faith, renewal, and restoration.  Kwanzaa is all about remembrance and celebration.  And Christian Christmas (about the baby Jesus, not Santa Claus) is about a brightness of hope and faith confirmed.  (Ok, Santa does some of that too.)

Christmas and lights, they’re as inseparable as peanut butter and jelly, turkey and Thanksgiving, or Easter and decorated eggs.  Lights are a powerful symbol to religions, individuals, and daily living.  Even as regular old daily objects, lights are special, necessary, and almost impossible to live without.  Maybe that’s why they’re even more effective as symbols. 



Lights help fear go away by illuminating the way. A star on the top of a tree doesn’t just represent the star of Bethlehem that showed the way to the Christ child, it is also a beacon that calls out and gathers in family to share and bask in its glow.  Colored lights twinkling are like looking up at the night sky while wishing, and a bright silvery moon is perfect for dreaming.  Any light in a dark or unfamiliar place gives hope.  As the sun comes up each morning and we feel its warmth we feel renewed and restored.  Lights are cheerful, joyful, bright, and gay.  They warm your thoughts and prepare the best ways.

Time for a Christmas holiday challenge…

Go out.  Look at the lights.  Feel the holiday vibe.  Enjoy everyone’s joy and share in all the best traditions (especially the foods!).  Maybe you’ll even decide to add a few new traditions to your own.  Most of all suck up all of the joy and the hope.  Recharge and renew yourself with peace, love, best wishes, and goodwill to and from all mankind.  Follow the festive holiday lights into your own bright new year.  And as always, our entire crew here at Genius Solutions wishes you and yours all the best this holiday season and for the New Year.

Adding & Expiring CPT codes in THOMAS

Recently we've received some inquiries from some of our behavioral health offices regarding letters they've received stating that there will be changes to their current CPT codes to be implemented in 2013.  Just because we've heard most recently from behavioral health offices, it does not mean that all of you won't need to change or update your CPT codes at some time in the near future (i.e. think ICD-10).



It is not unusual for CPT codes to change, expire, or get removed. 

If you need to modify, expire, or add new code files you need to:

• First, determine what codes in your system are changing or need to be changed.
• If there is a code that you need to change (even if it's a month or more away) you can add the new codes in to THOMAS.  You can also put the effective date of the new codes with them into THOMAS, so they don't accidentally get used before the effective date.
• You can also add an expiration date to the codes that are going to expire, so they don’t get used after the expiration date.

***NOTICE that you will ADD and EXPIRE codes - NOT DELETE them.

Got Compliance? What’s in your Office Manual?

As we are quickly approaching the end of the year and you are considering beginning or updating your office compliance manuals… These are some important items to be aware of, especially if you haven’t heard of them or were unsure what they really were.  These three items desperately need to be included in your office practices, policies, and compliance plan, or they could be devastating to both you and your office:  The Sunshine Act, The Medicare Enrollment Revalidation Initiative, and ACA Overpayments.  Also be advised, as each of the legal pages I read stated: the following are guidelines and best understanding.  For any actual legal advice particular to office and procedures, you should seek final guidance from your own legal guides.

 

Closed for Thanksgiving Weekend

Punctuation in THOMAS-New Medicare Errors

In the past it has been our practice to train users NOT to use punctuation in THOMAS, except in very specific places like the dashes used in phone numbers or social security numbers.  The reason was, because with electronic files being sent and read by computers many times those other keyboard characters meant something entirely different to the computer reading your file.  Sometimes they were even commands telling the other computer to do something.  Well, those days are changing.

If you haven't already seen this error, you may well soon-

PATIENT NAME AND MEDICARE NUMBER DO NOT MATCH

 

How to Make Sure You Keep More of Your Money

I’ve mentioned in the past that there is a great resource I recommend for current practice knowledge and chat- it is Physician’s Practice, which you can find at www.physicianspractice.com.  It doesn’t cost anything to sign up there, but it is well worth it for the office and coding tips and tricks alone.  I noticed a theme over the last month or so in their Practice Pearls e-mails and pulled a bunch of collected office wisdom for you.  I will post the articles I used at the end so you can go read them in their entirety.  Some come from this year’s MGMA conference in San Antonio, TX where they collected some current thoughts and discussion on meaningful use and best office practices.  This is all new and current stuff.

First off – Verify, Check, double-check, and Confirm.

BCBSM (Michigan) Edit for MR and RRMR

Over the last couple of weeks we've been getting calls about BCBS Michigan edits regarding Medicare, RR Medicare, DMERC etc.

***********************
Per BCBSM:

"Effective 9/28/2012, Medicare implemented new front-end edits for
all Medicare Part B and Medicare DMERC professional claims. The edits are triggered by Medicare for claims reporting a Group Name in
Loop 2000B SBR04. Edits are returned on 277CAW and 277CAM reports and 277CA transactions:

A8 663 IL Entity's Group Name
A8 732 IL Information submitted inconsistent with billing guidelines"

***********************
Michigan THOMAS clients must take out what they have in plan name and group name for MR (Medicare) and RRMR (Rail Road Medicare) policies only, to comply with the Medicare guidelines.

If you have additional questions, or have done this and are still receiving these edits, please call support.

October First Friday Conference Call

There will NOT be a 10/5/2012 Genius Solutions First Friday of the Month Conference call.  We hope to have one on November 2nd.

Florida Seminar Rescheduled

Due to circumstances beyond our control, we are rescheduling the Genius Solutions healthcare seminar in Pensacola, Florida From Oct 9, 2012, to Friday, February 1, 2013. All of the rest of the times, location, and information are the same. Please mark your calendar for the new date and get ready to visit with us in February. We are looking forward to visiting with you!

We will post an updated flier and send out a new e-mail as soon as the Florida seminar reschedule has gone through the final approvals.