Ohio ACEP physicians with special interest and expertise in billing, coding and compliance gathered on September 11th with Reimbursement Task Force Chair, Dr. David Chauvin, to meet with Ohio Medicare CGS medical director, Dr. Earl Berman. Participating physicians included Drs. Steven Blaha, Michael Choo, David Chauvin, Hamilton Lempert, John Lyman and Jonathan Siff. Requested by Dr. Berman, this meeting was to initiate a relationship between CGS and Ohio ACEP with a goal to increase CGS-emergency physician communication.
Dr. Berman also reported some challenges to CGS identified by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Comprehensive Error Rate Testing (CERT) program. Dr. Berman shared three areas of concern with the error rate for Ohio’s emergency physicians: illegible signatures; modifier issues; and downcoding related to documentation regarding medical decision-making. Dr. Lempert agreed to act as a liaison for Ohio ACEP with CGS to work on newsletter and other educational avenues regarding some of these issues.
It was a productive meeting with a shared concern for good medical care; a common commitment to assist emergency physicians with documentation issues as appropriate; and a desire for future opportunities to deal with issues of mutual concern. Please look for information in future news items.