5/31/11: Medicare User’s Group Resource Center: Available to Group Members Only. Please contact Dr. Herz directly to participate.
5/25/11: First meeting was held. Please sign up for this group to see topics of discussion and planning.
Yes, please sign me up to for this group!
Hi colleagues,
I’m going to start a “Medicare User’s Group”. This will be for the purpose of helping psychologists work within Medicare. I have been enrolled with Medicare since 1992 and provided services to Medicare beneficiaries in hospital-based, small group practice and solo practice settings. But the complexities of working as a psychologist within Medicare are a constant reminder that no one individual can be an “expert.” This is why I would like to help colleagues, from knowledgeable to novice, get together so that we can all inform and support each other.
My initial idea for this will be for the group to
- Develop common understandings of the rules under which psychologists operate within Medicare, such as related to documentation and billing and other issues
- Identify a common set of primary resources that define the rules
- Assist colleagues in trouble-shooting specific problems
- Track the effectiveness of solutions attempted
- Identify proactive ways to limit the risk of audit
- Provide support and shared knowledge to minimize damage to a psychologist’s practice in the event of an audit
- Potentially identify common patterns in problems that are occurring across states and MACs
- Identify and possibly initiate group actions with regard to identified common problems, such as through collecting data and documenting problems to CMS
This group is open only to Doctoral and Master’s level psychologists licensed to practice independently in their jurisdictions.
I would envision that we may at times identify questions for which we might want to identify and invite experts in particular areas to join us for discussion.
Initially I am thinking the group can meet monthly, increasing up or down in frequency as needed.
I want to make this as easy possible to access, so at this point I’m going to begin by using FreeConferenceCall.com. This will allow participants to call in to a group conferencing number, for only the cost of the long distance service. We might discuss other group conferencing options.
The first meeting is scheduled for Weds, May 25th at 7pm CST.
Please use the link above or below to let me know of your interest, and I will provide you with the call-in information. Your information will be not be used in any way other than to include you in this group. Please feel free to pass this information on to anyone who you think would be interested. Hope this is useful!