Part B Insider (Multispecialty) Coding Alert

Published on Fri Aug 23, 2013 PDF

Plus: Overbilling kyphoplasty leads to $388,000 settlement for one doctor.

It’s that time of year again—as summer turns to autumn, the OIG typically publishes its Work Plan for the coming year, outlining all of the focus issues that the agency intends to spotlight going forward. What’s different about this autumn, however, is that the OIG doesn’t plan to release one.

Instead, the OIG notes on its website, the 2014 Work Plan won’t be issued until January 2014. The change “will better align with priorities OIG has set for the coming year, a time of continuing fiscal challenges,” the agency said in a statement.

What’s the Work Plan? If you haven’t read previous iterations of the document, the OIG’s Work Plan reveals the hot button issues that the agency plans to investigate over the course of the year. For example, the agency has been looking at “cloned notes” for E/M services, incident-to visits, and the use of “G” modifiers with ABNs over the course of the current year, according to the agency’s 2013 Work Plan.

To stay up-to-date on the agency’s focus areas and other plans, visit the OIG website at http://oig.hhs.gov/reports-and-publications/workplan/index.asp#2014update.