INSURANCE NEWS

By Melani Crocker, D.C. MCS-P Insurance Committee Member

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s of December 2013, the Center for Medicare Services in meaningful use incentive payments. Undoubtedly you have seen the ads from chiropractic EHR vendors who are reminding you of the possibility of getting a piece of that pie when you utilize their system. It’s understandable: meaningful use incentives are providing an excellent opportunity for you to capture a “rebate” which can help offset the purchase price of your soft-  Today, I’d like to talk about the other side of that story – what happens AFTER you attest meaning- ful use. Unfortunately, it’s a subject that needs discussing because it is quickly becoming Medicare’s newest audit trap for chiropractors. Even if you didn’t attest meaningful use, read on to protect your practice from this next wave of audits.

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 that you are using EHR technology as recommended. The auditor’s job is then to verify that you did what you said.

Physicians should assume they will be audited and prepare accordingly.”

“ – what happens AFTER you attest meaningful use. Unfortunately, it’s a subject that needs discussing because it is quickly becoming Medicare’s newest audit trap for chiropractors.”

As a result, chiropractors (and other

The reason is quite simple and mathematically makes sense. If the feds are shoveling out billions in incentive payments to jump on EHR (some of which goes to chiropractors), auditing those providers who attest meaningful use make sense. After all, let’s say you

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physicians, hospitals, etc.) have been receiving love letters in the mail from CMS in the form of a Meaningful Use “Documentation Request” – aka an audit in regards to their Meaningful Use practices. In my opinion, this is not entirely unexpected. What has been a bit alarming is the growing number of emails I’ve been receiving from chiropractors who got “the letter.”  that this trend is disturbingly increasing outside of chiropractic as well. In fact, Medical Economics recently reported that: “As the agency [CMS] inches closer to  that it’s increasing its auditing services.

Let’s skip more chicken little and cut to the chase: what exactly is CMS looking for when it makes these “docu- mentation requests” and how can we best prepare as chiropractors? Here’s a quick rundown of the 7 items that are commonly on the Meaningful Use Documentation Request List:

1. Licensing Agreement & Invoice– provide a copy of your EHR ven-

dor’s licensing agreement and invoice (proof you didn’t pirate your software) which shows that the version of the software you were using to attest mean-  2. Number of Facilities – you will be

 patients (because they all need to have   that)

3. Number of EHR Systems – you will be asked how many systems you have (to coordinate with #2) 4. Percentage of Time in Multiple  time you spend in those additional  5. Records Outside Your EHR System

– you will be asked if you have any patient records that are maintained

July 2014  Te Missouri Chiropractor