CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) is pushing for increases in physician fees to be based on performance, not inflation.  In 2006, CMS introduced the Physician Voluntary Reporting Program, with no financial incentives for a practice to begin reporting.  However, the lame duck session of Congress in December of 2006 changed that.  Congress rescinded the 5.5% decrease, but added a 1.5% bonus INCREASE in the second half of 2007…but only for practices that report on quality indicators in the second half of 2007.

This audio conference will give an overview of the program and the indicators.  Each indicator may be used with specific CPT and ICD-9 codes, as an add on code, not reported by itself.  Although all specialties may participate in the program, there are not indicators for all specialties.  There are indicators for these specialties:  Internal Medicine, Family Practice, Cardiology, Surgery, Psychiatry, Ophthalmology, Endocrinology, Orthopaedics, Urology, Dermatology, Geriatrics, Gynecology, Pulmonary, Emergency Medicine, Infectious Diseases and Gastroenterology.

The lecture will also discuss implementation strategies for collecting and reporting this data for services provided in the office and in the hospital.

Join us and learn:

• Participants will understand what the Physician Voluntary Reporting Program is and how it works
• Participants will learn how to sign up for the program and how to report the indicators
• Participants will hear about strategies to implement this program in their offices
• Hear real-world scenarios that you can apply today to your practice

Meet our Expert Speaker and Author:

Betsy Nicoletti is the author of The Field Guide to Physician Coding and also the 2006 Physician Auditing Workbook.  She is the owner of Medical Practice Consulting, a consulting firm whose mission is to help doctors get paid.  Besides doing auditing and compliance work, she is a frequent speaker and consultant in practice management, coding education, billing and Accounts Receivable. She holds a Masters in Organization and Management from Antioch New England and has worked in and around physician offices for over 20 years.

Betsy was the Chief Operating Officer of Network Management Services in Springfield, Vermont for nine years. During that time, she was responsible for physician practice operations in the network and the operations of the MSO administrative service functions. She set up a centralized billing and information system that served over 20 practices and 60 physicians. She organized the management services and was responsible for operational systems including personnel, regulatory compliance, budgeting, and planning.