Part B Insider (Multispecialty) Coding Alert
Doctors Need To Ballast Hot-Air Cost Balloon
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It's partly doctors' fault that medical costs are shooting up, says one influential doctor. Mahendr Kochar, president of the 1,800-member Milwaukee County Medical Society, urged physicians to bring costs down in a speech, reports the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Doctors "must make every effort to keep the costs of health care down to the extent possible without compromising" quality of care, Kochar insisted. That means standing up to patients who demand unnecessary tests or brand-name drugs when generic medications would do the trick, he said.
And in a notice published in the March 20 Federal Register, the HHS Office for Civil Rights explains that people who think a health care provider has run afoul of HIPAA privacy rules need to submit their gripes, in writing, to the OCR regional office in their area. The site also includes a new Q&Aabout physician fee schedules and CMS' plans to reduce physician payments for 2004, the last-minute second chance for physicians to change their Medicare participating status, and other issues.
"We must explain to them why it is not in their best interest," Kochar wrote in an article for the Society's March newsletter called "Healthcare Costs - Up, Up and Away?" Kochar also appointed an eight-member task force to examine how the Society can slow cost increases.
Medical nutrition would have to be coordinated, and couldn't exceed three hours per year unless a physician determined more nutrition therapy was necessary.
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