CMS and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have announced that payment is available to physicians and health care providers to counsel patients at the time of COVID-19 testing about the importance of self-isolation after they are tested and prior to the onset of symptoms. The transmission of COVID-19 occurs from both symptomatic, pre-symptomatic, and … [Read more...] about Your office will be paid for counselling patients to self-isolate at time of COVID-19 testing
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Resource ready for next year’s QRDA Implementation
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has published the Quality Reporting Document Architecture (QRDA) Category III Implementation Guide (IG), Schematron, and Sample Files for Eligible Clinicians and Eligible Professionals Programs. The 2021 CMS QRDA III IG outlines requirements for eligible clinicians and eligible professionals to report electronic clinical … [Read more...] about Resource ready for next year’s QRDA Implementation
Use contact logging to ensure medical office employees practice social distancing
Managing a medical office compliance program in the age of COVID-19 poses new and unprecedented challenges. One of the biggest and most important is ensuring that employees and the persons they interact with on the job follow social distancing requirements. To succeed in this effort, you must have the capability to track actual encounters. One possibility is digital technology, … [Read more...] about Use contact logging to ensure medical office employees practice social distancing
Tool: Model COVID-19 Contact Log Sheet
Maintaining social distancing will be the price that medical offices and other businesses will have to pay to reopen and remain open until the COVID-19 threat goes away. But for social distancing to work, there must be a way to track and analyze actual encounters between people at your facility. One simple way to gather the essential data is to have employees and visitors … [Read more...] about Tool: Model COVID-19 Contact Log Sheet
Physician Compare Preview Period open until Aug. 20
The Physician Compare 60-day Preview Period is officially open as of June 22. You can now preview your 2018 Quality Payment Program performance information before it will appear on Physician Compare profile pages and in the Downloadable Database. You can access the secured Preview through the Quality Payment Program website. Access the resource below on how to preview your … [Read more...] about Physician Compare Preview Period open until Aug. 20
Feds say insurers not required to pay for employer return to work COVID-19 testing
Since the public health emergency began, the US government has taken the position that insurers shouldn’t be allowed to make consumers pay for COVID-19 lab tests. But now comes news that insurers will not be put in that same position with regard to return to work screening conducted on employees by their employers. FFCRA rules for COVID-19 test payment The key piece of … [Read more...] about Feds say insurers not required to pay for employer return to work COVID-19 testing
So, your employee wants to stay on unemployment
By Paul Edwards bio It’s been a few of months of COVID chaos and business owners across America are thinking about what it’s going to take to reopen their businesses—and the economy, in general. Of course, the first piece of that equation involves recalling your employees who have been temporarily furloughed or laid off. And, since one portion of the CARES Act included an … [Read more...] about So, your employee wants to stay on unemployment
Supreme Court ruling extends workplace protections to LGBTQ workers
By Mike O’Brien bio SEXUAL ORIENTATION AND TRANSGENDER STATUS NOW ARE PROTECTED CLASSES NATIONALLY: Federal civil rights law protects gay, lesbian, and transgender employees, the United States Supreme Court announced June 15 in a landmark ruling. The historic decision will extend workplace anti-discrimination and anti-harassment protections to about 8 million LGBTQ workers … [Read more...] about Supreme Court ruling extends workplace protections to LGBTQ workers
Model COVID-19 Exposure Control Plan
Regulators have made it clear that workplaces must implement written plans to control COVID-19 exposure risks at the site. Here’s a Model Plan template your medical office can adapt that provides for the necessary protections. … [Read more...] about Model COVID-19 Exposure Control Plan
How to create a COVID-19 exposure control plan
For as long as COVID-19 remains a threat, businesses—both essential and nonessential—won’t be allowed to re-open and remain open unless they implement a plan to control workplace infection risks. While infection control is nothing new for medical offices, the challenges posed by COVID-19 are unprecedented and unique and you probably won’t find any great templates in your … [Read more...] about How to create a COVID-19 exposure control plan