Welcome
Greetings to all of our Azalea Health Innovations friends and thank you for reading this month’s newsletter. We hope everyone had a wonderful Holiday and is looking forward to a prosperous 2012!

ONC Looks to Hollywood for Consumer Engagement Advice
The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT has hired a production company out of California to develop a video that will voice to the public the need for EHR and other healthIT products. According to the ONC, it is important for the population to encourage their health care providers to become more technologically advanced. Many consumers do not understand the significance of having access to their health information and what this will enable them to do. The video short will convey the message of necessity for healthIT by describing features such as convenience, enhanced accuracy, and safer care.

Mobile Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (mHIMSS)

Billing Tip: Medicare Pay Cut Postponed Again
Once again, Congress has enacted a last minute reprieve from the dreaded 27 percent physician fee schedule pay cut. The latest pay cut was scheduled to go into place on January 1st, 2012. According to the American Medical Association (AMA), the House of Representatives and Senate both passed bills putting off the pay cut for another two months until February 29th, 2012. In January, A House-Senate conference committee will convene to attempt a longer term agreement.

2012 Electronic Prescribing (eRx) Incentive Program Payment Adjustment Feedback Report Update
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services would like to advise providers that due to the high volume of significant hardship exemption requests received, it is no longer technically feasible for CMS to provide a 2012 Electronic Prescribing (eRx) Incentive Program payment adjustment feedback report as originally intended.

As CMS continues to explore alternative means to notify eligible professionals that they are subject to the 2012 eRx payment adjustment, we urge you to review your remittance advices for claims submitted for dates of services on or after January 1, 2012.

Eligible professionals and group practices (GPRO) participating in the eRx GPRO that receive the 2012 eRx payment adjustment will see the term “LE” on their remittance advice for all Medicare Part B services rendered January 1-December 31, 2012.

The remittance advice will also contain the following Claim Adjustment Reason Code (CARC) and Remittance Advice Remark Code (RARC):

CARC 237 – Legislated/Regulatory Penalty. At least one Remark Code must be provided (may be comprised of either the NCPDP Reject Reason Code, or Remittance Advice Remark Code that is not an ALERT).

RARC N545 – Payment reduced based on status as an unsuccessful e-prescriber per the Electronic Prescribing (eRx) Incentive Program.
If an eligible professional or group practice that participated in the eRx GPRO receives the payment adjustment in error (e.g., the eligible professional or group practice submitted a hardship exemption request that is ultimately approved by CMS), the claim will be reprocessed to return the 1.0% and the remittance advice for the reprocessed claim will include the following codes and messages:

CARC 237 – Legislated/Regulatory Penalty. At least one Remark Code must be provided (may be comprised of either the NCPDP Reject Reason Code, or Remittance Advice Remark Code that is not an ALERT).

RARC N546 – Payment represents a previous reduction based on the Electronic Prescribing (eRx) Incentive Program.
For more information on how the 2012 eRx payment adjustment will be assessed and applied, please refer to MLN Matters Article SE1141 for additional information. Or feel free to visit the eRx Incentive Program webpage at http://www.cms.gov/erxincentive on the CMS website.

Upcoming Events:
AHI will be exhibiting Azalea Labhub℠ at the CLMA ThinkLab’12 – Clinical Laboratory Management Association. The event is being held at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, GA on April 29 – May 2, 2012.

AHI will be exhibiting at the GPT- Georgia Partnership For Telehealth Annual Spring Conference. The event is being held at the Ritz-Carlton Reynolds Plantation in Lake Oconee, GA on March 14-16, 2012.

Thank you!

Azalea Health Innovations, Inc.
Azalea Health Innovations, Inc.
105 West Central Avenue
Valdosta, GA 31601
Toll Free: 877-777-7686
Local: 229-269-4620
Toll Free Fax: 866-683-8679
Web: http://www.AzaleaHealth.com
Email: info@azaleahealth.com

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