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Leslie Witkin Consulting Management Menu
 About
Us
Physicians First, Inc. was founded in Orlando, Florida in June of 1990 by the company
president, Leslie Witkin.
Leslie is a graduate of the
Dartmouth-Hitchcock School of Nursing in New Hampshire and
has over twenty years of successful experience in medical
practice management.
Her long term healthcare career
has fostered mutual respect in clinical and professional relationships
with physicians, medical office personnel, state and federal
legislators, and executives in other organizations that represent
physician interests.
The goal of the company is to
provide quality consulting services to help physicians achieve
a successful business in a complex regulatory environment
that allows physicians to be a physician
first….the way it should be.
Being highly pro-active and
with steadfast commitment, the company has been successful
in presenting testimony to both state and federal regulators
resulting in resolution to physician issues and legislation
related to prompt pay laws.
The company works directly with
physician businesses to provide operational assessments, auditing,
and other consulting services. In addition, Physicians
First, Inc. has conducted and written comprehensive
manuals for a variety of seminars both nationally and throughout
the State of Florida. Topics for programs are always pertinent
to the latest regulatory and operational issues facing the
medical business.
The value of educational programs
as well as the company's consulting services is more than
documented in the references from both participants, administrators,
and other executives who have utilized Physicians First, Inc.
in their organizations.
Physicians
First Inc. has published many articles, frequently
renders opinions, and has served as a speaker for many national
publications that cover a wide variety of physician specialties,
coding, policy, and regulatory issues.
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Physicians
First
..the
way it should be |
FYI
- For Your Information |
Click Here To View All Articles
December 27, 2011
Article: CMS Will Not Provide Interim Feedback Reports for Determining if Individual Providers will Incur the 1% 2012 ERx Penalty for Medicare Part B Fee Schedule Services
Despite CMS indicating in their 9/6/11 final E-Prescribe rules that providers would receive an interim feedback report to know in advance if they would receive the 1% ERx penalty adjustment as of 1/1/2012, CMS announced 12/20/11 these reports were not "technically feasible" for them to provide.
In addition, CMS has NOT processed the ERx exemption requests which providers could apply for using the Communication Support Page up until 11/8/11. CMS indicates the volume of these requests was too great. The ONLY email notices thus far sent to providers as a result of their exemption request filings, were sent to providers from QualityNet on 12/9/11. The email notified providers they would not be penalized as of 1/1/2012; BUT WAS NOT due to the actual exemption request reason the provider filed. The email was sent to providers whose actual data had been reviewed for the period 1/1/11 thru 6/30/11 based on the Name/NPI/TIN listed in the exemption request; and determined they were already exempt from the penalty (no filing of an exemption request was required). The email sent to providers was VERY confusing. Here is what the email said:
"Thank you for submitting a request for a significant hardship exemption from the 2012 electronic prescribing (eRx) payment adjustment. Our records indicate that you submitted one or more requests for a significant hardship exemption to the 2012 eRx payment adjustment. This formal notification is to inform you that the 2012 eRx payment adjustment, which will result in a 1.0 percent reduction on an eligible professional’s 2012 Medicare Part B physician fee schedule covered professional services, does NOT apply to you based on the identifying information received in your hardship request. Therefore, your request(s) for a significant hardship exemption to the 2012 eRx payment adjustment will be disregarded.
If you received the above email...GREAT!! If you did not, then you will NOT receive any notification as to your penalty status that kicks in as of 1/1/2012, although CMS says they contunue to work on a method for notifying providers. At this late date, do not hold your breath.
Instead, your first indication as to receiving the 1% penalty will occur when you start receiving your 2012 Medicare remittances. On 12/21/11, CMS posted an article describing the remittance and remark codes that will indicate the 1% penalty has been applied. To read the Medlearn article, click here.
If the exemption request you filed on the Communication Support Page is ultimately approved by CMS after 1/1/2012, any claims where the penalty applied would then need to be re-processed thus creating further chaos to your patient account reconciliation. The MedLearn article also describes the remittance and remark codes you will see when the ERx penalty is subsequently adjusted.
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