On August 17, 2020, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) announced they will resume routine inspections of all Medicare- and Medicaid-certified providers and suppliers that were previously suspended as part of its response to the COVID-19 pandemic. To read the notice straight from CMS, click HERE.

UnitedHealthcare (UHC) Community Plan will begin Site of Care Medical Necessity Reviews and are also revising their prior authorization requirements for occupational, physical and speech therapy services. Beginning with dates of service on and after  

Palmetto GBA, Medicare Administrative Contractor (MAC) for Jurisdiction J which includes the states of Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee, currently has two active medical reviews for outpatient therapy services for non-private practice settings. The two reviews are focused on CPT code 97110 (therapeutic exercise) and CPT code 97140 (manual therapy). When the results of the review are posted, I will write an article on the findings.

As many of you have found out the hard way, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) implemented a new program called Targeted Probe and Educate (TPE) where the goal of the program is to help providers and suppliers reduce claim denials and appeals through one-on-one education. CMS uses data analysis to identify providers and suppliers who have high claim error rates or unusual billing practices, and items and services that have high national error rates and are a financial risk to Medicare. Upon data analysis, if you are not an outlier in any of the above areas, you