Billing Track Day 1 – Thursday, Sept. 30, 2004

7:00 a.m. – 8:00 a.m. – Registration and Continental Breakfast

8:00 a.m. – 9:15 a.m. – General Session: Keynote speaker Theodore R. Marmor on Medicare Reform, History and Politics: Why Almost Everything You’ve Heard, Read or Seen Probably Isn’t True (click here to return to General Session agenda descriptions)

9:30 a.m. - 10:45 a.m.
Fiddling With Your Fee Schedule Can Pay Off Handsomely – See How
Frank Cohen, CMPA, Senior Analyst, Medical Information Technologies, Clearwater, Fla.

If you’re not checking your fee schedule at least annually, you’re probably costing your practice entitled reimbursement. Get the skills needed to save time when analyzing your fee schedule – and profit from the exercise. Frank Cohen describes RBRVS basics and shows you how to benchmark the fees for procedures and services that fall below critical thresholds. Don’t miss Frank’s interactive demonstration revealing how to use your EOBs to validate reimbursement to optimize revenue from commercial payers.

11:00 a.m.-12:15 p.m.
An A-Z Guide to Audit Your Billing Process
Peggy Pugh, RN, MLT, CPC, CPC-H, ACS-AP, Compliance Specialist, VA Stars & Stripes Healthcare Network, Pittsburgh, Pa.

So where’s the holdup in your billing operations? This session gives you a process to uncover gaps in your billing – from the front desk through the back-end. Peggy Pugh covers each step of your billing office. Your CD-ROM features take-home tools, including 5 spreadsheets, the audit process (which can easily be adapted to your specialty!) and training guidance to help staff eliminate billing mishaps.

1:30 p.m. - 2:45 p.m.
7 Revenue Cycle Myths Or The Hard Truth That Payers Don’t Cheat You
Rick Carter, Associate Partner, Phase 2 Consulting, Salt Lake City, Utah

Practices waste so much time trying to conquer myths that don’t contribute substantially to the bottom-line, says Rick Carter. In this session, Rick exposes common myths, such as incentivizing billing staff improves collections, “that data isn’t available in our computer system,” collecting copays helps collections, your net collection ratio should be between 85%-95%, and more. See how you can save time and more productively boost your bottom-line. Your take-home CD-ROM includes mathematical models that disprove common billing myths.

3:00 p.m. - 4:15 p.m.
Improve Reimbursements by Turning Payers’ Public Data Against Them
Gene Preston, Principal, and Jennie Campbell, CPC, CCS-P, Senior Manager, Pershing, Yoakley & Associates, Knoxville, Tenn.

Payers know everything about you. Now you can turn the tables. Gene Preston and Jennie Campbell reveal how to use publicly available financial information on managed care companies to benefit your contracting. See how to get insurers’ rate filings and annual statements and mine gold amid the data, such as price per visit, utilization, market share, PMPM expense and more. Gene and Jennie walk you through a case study example and share negotiations tips. You also get contract language and tips for 5 major provisions that will aid your practice. BONUS: Your CD-ROM includes sample contract clauses and a benchmarking template to compare insurers’ payments. (Pictured L to R: Gene Preston; Jennie Campbell)

Mix & Match! Customize your conference by attending the sessions that suit your needs. Don’t forget to review the agendas for the Coding Track and Compliance Track.

Billing Track Day 2 – Friday, Oct. 1, 2004

7:30 a.m. Continental Breakfast

9:30 a.m. - 10:45 a.m.
A Proven Process to Uncover Your Top Billing Problems and Improve Collection of Your A/R
Maureen West McCarthy, CPA, Snyder Cohn Collyer, Bethesda, Md.

Hear the 10 most common billing mistakes and then get a process to determine what’s slowing your A/R collections – and winning strategies to speed your payments. Maureen West McCarthy shows you ways to drill down into your data to find and fix A/R snags. You go home with two spreadsheets (on your CD-ROM) that allow you to plug in your numbers and see how you’re doing (gross and net collection rates, average monthly statistics, days in A/R, collection % by payer, aging trends by payer and more). Bonus: Sign up for a free critique of your practice’s A/R while at the Summit.

11:00 a.m. - 12:15 p.m.
Golden Guidance: Techniques to Reduce Denials & Win Appeals
Maureen West McCarthy, CPA, Snyder Cohn Collyer, Bethesda, Md.
Eliminate your top 5 causes of denials and wipe out 80% of your denials. Experience proves that statement, says consultant Maureen West McCarthy. She shows you how to track your denials – with an interactive exercise built around a spreadsheet that comes on your conference CD-ROM – to spot trends and identify your top reasons for denials. She hands you solutions to common reasons for denials based on real-life examples. Then discover a way to standardize your appeals. “I want appeals out the door within 24 to 48 hours,” she says. Your CD-ROM comes with standardized letters in MS Word that your staff need only fill-in-the-blanks to speed appeals.

1:30 p.m. - 2:45 p.m.
Whistleblowers, Subpoenas and a $1.5 million Settlement:
A Practice Shares Hard-Fought Compliance Lessons
Vicki Dwyer, Compliance Officer, MN, ARNP, Galichia Medical Group, Wichita, Kan.

They showed up in dark polyester suits waving subpoenas — and it wasn’t a joke. Come hear a riveting case study from Galichia Medical Group, a 30-physician multispecialty practice in Wichita, Kan. Former employees set the U.S. Attorney’s Office and ultimately the HHS Office of Inspector General upon the practice. Vicki Dwyer shares her lessons learned, such as how point-of-service coders can protect you. “We literally reformulated our entire process for documenting, coding, and billing for services to eliminate any concerns there could be about our compliance activities,” she says. Get a process — shaped by bitter experience — for how to respond if agents show up in your waiting room. See why you should develop a “problems list” and get tips to document what your carrier tells you. BONUS: Your handout includes 3 coding templates that can boost your documentation and crucial compliance P&Ps.

3:00 p.m. - 4:15 p.m.
Get the Most Out of Your NPPs, Plus Concrete Billing Tips – By Service Site!
Nancy Jensen, RN, NP, CPC, CHCC, Medical Auditing Services, Racine, Wis.

Make sure you’re keeping up with your peers when it comes to efficiently and productivity using non-physician practitioners (NPs, PAs, CNSs, PTs and more). Score solid billing guidance from Nancy Jensen. She tells you when you can and can’t bill incident-to, gives you documentation tips and strategies to get the most out of your NPPs (know the 75% test!). Then she shows you specific NPP billing scenarios, by site of service (hospital rounds, SNF, ED observation, nursing home and office visits). Your handout includes Medicare’s incident-to billing rules and your take-home CD features an NPP productivity worksheet to see how much your NPPs contribute to your bottom-line.

Mix & Match! Customize your conference by attending the sessions that suit your needs. Don’t forget to review the agendas for the Coding Track and Compliance Track.

-| top |-