Practice Management Alert

Plus, Medicare owes millions in back pay to practices in three states. Practices that participate with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts and take part in the physician incentives program are soon going to have to start e-prescribing. The payer has set Jan. 1, 2011, as the official date that practices will have to begin e-prescribing to keep getting incentives. Good news: The Blues in Massachusetts will provide financial assistance and training on how to use the e-prescribing system during the first year of the program. In other news: If your practice is in Hawaii, California, or Nevada, you may be wondering where your money from Medicare is, thanks to a recent NPI number snafu that one carrier appears to have made. According to a Nov. 8 L.A. Times article, some physicians haven't collected money from Medicare for long periods of time -- some not since February -- and money is getting tight in those practices. The reason: Physicians in these states were expected to begin using new NPI numbers last May, but one of the Medicare contractors changed during the NPI assignment process. Therefore, the new contractor never set up the NPIs, and the physicians are unable to collect payment from Medicare without those NPI numbers on file. The move to using Palmetto GBA as the claims processor for California, Hawaii, and Nevada only added to the NPI issues.