by Mary Pat Whaley | Jul 5, 2010 | Definitions
William of Ockham was a 14th-century English logician, theologian and Franciscan friar and although Occam’s Razor bears his name, it is suspected that he did not originate it, only that he repeated it repeatedly! Occam’s Razor is the principle that...
by Mary Pat Whaley | Jul 5, 2010 | Definitions
The Check Clearing for the 21st Century Act (or Check 21 Act) is a United States federal law, Pub.L. 108-100, enacted into law October 28, 2003 by the 108th Congress. It took effect one year later, on October 28, 2004. The law allows the recipient of the original...
by Bob Whaley | Jun 27, 2010 | Definitions
DRGs may not be familiar to many practice administrators as they are a payment method for hospitals. Applied to all U.S. hospitals as a Medicare reimbursement method in 1983, DRGs are groups of hospital services clustered around diagnoses. The theory of DRGs is that...
by Bob Whaley | Jun 21, 2010 | Definitions
Update: MLN (Medicare Learning Network) published this pdf on ICD-10 on June 22, 2010 ******* The diagnosis is the identification of a patient’s disease or medical condition and is currently (2010) described by a six place numeric identifier (5 digits and one...
by Mary Pat Whaley | Jun 14, 2010 | Definitions
If the provider participates (“par”), he agrees to accept the Medicare-approved amount as payment in full ”” called accepting assignment ”” and Medicare will pay 80 percent of this approved amount, after the deductible is met. The patient is responsible...
by Mary Pat Whaley | Jun 12, 2010 | Definitions
Call the Social Security Administration at 1.800.772.1213. If the patient needs help, someone else can be on the phone. The patient can authorize someone else to check for them by authorizing Medicare to release their information by downloading the “Appointment...
