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Building a Profitable and Defensible Fee Schedule

Posted by Lisa Velasquez in Fi-Med Services, Hot Topics, Industry Updates, Webinars

Do you know where your fee schedule came from? Is your office manager working off of a fax of a fax of a fax of a fee schedule created by a billing company you used years ago? Stark laws prevent physicians from comparing fee schedules–so how do you come up with your fee schedule?

Whether you are just starting your own medical practice or a seasoned veteran, I think you will find the information in this webinar very informative. The topic is “Building a Profitable ad Defensible Fee Schedule”. And as usual, if you can’t attend, the information is available to you (free) if you visit the webinar section of Frank’s website. 

Here is a brief description of what you can expect:

The fee schedule is the medical practice’s most important, yet least analyzed financial tool. Learn the benchmarks, metrics and resources needed to analyze and fine-tune your practice’s fee schedule code by code. In this workshop, Frank Cohen, data analyst and statistician, will show you how to identify over and under-priced services and how to solve low-paying fixed-fee contracts. Methodologies will include RBRVS, time, global charge models and benchmarking against  national and state charges. When complete, attendees will have acquired the skill set necessary to immediately begin their own in-depth fee schedule analysis.

For a nominal charge, attendees will have access to a complete tool box, which includes recorded versionsof the workshop handouts along with worksheets, templates, benchmark data and other resources necessary  to assist with the fee analysis and development process.

Title: Building a Defensible and Profitable Fee Schedule

Date: Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Time:1:00 PM-2:00PM EDT

If you can’t make it for the live webinar Frank will make all information available on his website.

Did you find this information helpful? If you have information that you think would be valuable to the medical community and would like me to post the information on our blog, please submit your request for review to my attention at (or via DM on Twitter@fimed).

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July 9th, 2009 | No Comments »

NCCI Updates-Version 15.2

Posted by Lisa Velasquez in Hot Topics, Industry Updates, Webinars

The National CCI database now contains 626,582 edit pairs of procedure codes that, when billed at the same time for the same patient by the same doctor on the same day, either will not be paid at all or will be paid at a reduced rate. Within the database are some hidden data points that could be critical to your reimbursement and/or compliance, such as duplicates, triplicates, reversals, etc. The data you download from the CMS website does not contain these data points nor can you always determine new and terminated pairs for a given period by just looking at dates. This quarter, there are over 5,000 edit pairs that have been terminated retroactively to April, 2009.

In this short, free webinar, Frank Cohen, analyst and developer of the most popular CCI search engines, will walk you through a brief introduction to the NCCI policy but more importantly, will show you the updated data pairs and the data points that are most often missed. Registered attendees will receive a list of worksheets that contain the duplicates, triplicates, reversals, additions and terminations for Version 15.2, which are effective July 1, 2009

Space is limited. Reserve your webinar now by visiting Frank’s website.

Did you find this information helpful? If you have information that you think would be valuable to the medical community and would like me to post the information on our blog, please submit your request for review to my attention at (or via DM on Twitter @fimed).

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June 22nd, 2009 | No Comments »

PDSA (Plan, Do, Study, Act)

Posted by Lisa Velasquez in Industry Updates, Webinars

There has been quite a bit of interest surrounding Frank Cohen’s webinars and so I would like to tell you about the next one he has scheduled for Thursday, June 18th, from 1:00-2:00pm EDT. What I like about these webinars is how current and practical the topics are. I also appreciate Frank’s ability to make even the most complex topics relatively easy to understand, and at no charge they are a great value! I would recommend attending the webinar live so that you can participate in Q. and A. but if for some reason there is a schedule conflict, they are made available on his website. Here is some more information about the upcoming topic:

“If change is the only thing that is consistent in our lives, how come we never get used to it? Healthcare is a dynamic industry with a constantly changing landscape in technology, management, regulations and economics. Being able to adapt to change is a necessity for survival. Being able to lead change is the single best way to thrive and ensure profitability. Process improvement techniques such as Lean and Six Sigma have proven themselves to be the most effective change models out there and for these to work in the medical practice, we need a way to deploy change in a fast, efficient and cost effective way.

“The solution is PDSA; Plan, Do, Study, Act. Not only is it the single most effective rapid change platform available, it is required by some specialties for recertification, enforcing its importance as both a clinical and business improvement strategy. In this session, Frank Cohen, statistician, Six Sigma Black Belt and Lean instructor, will introduce you to the concept of process improvement and the steps in the PDSA platform.”

When finished, attendees will have obtained the basic knowledge necessary to plan their own PDSA improvement projects. You can find more information or register for the webinar.

Did you find this information helpful? If you have information that you think would be valuable to the medical community and would like me to post the information on our blog, please submit your request for review to my attention at (or via DM on Twitter @fimed).

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June 11th, 2009 | No Comments »

Coding for the Non-Coder

Posted by Lisa Velasquez in Fi-Med Services, Industry Updates, Webinars

For over 30 years, Frank Cohen has worked as a health care data analyst, knowledge engineer and consultant. He has written many books and is the Senior Analyst for MIT Solutions. I have attended several of Franks webinars, which are scheduled 3-4 times a month, covering such topics as coding, code and modifier utilization, cost accounting, work RVUs, etc. This is a great resource that I want to share with all of you and best of all it’s free! Here is a brief intro to one of his webinars that I particularly liked: Coding for the Non-Coder

“Health care, like other industries, has its own language; and not just from a clinical perspective, either. Diagnosis and treatment codes are necessary in order to get paid for the services you provide and determine your level of compliance with the myriad of complex rules and regulations we face day to day. As the industry continues to tighten up with respect to finances  and regulation, physicians, practice managers, consultants, advisors and others are finding that understanding the relationship of coding to other areas of the practice has reached critical mass. You don’t have to be a coder to acquire a basic, foundational understanding of medical coding; the language of the business of medicine. Coding for the Non-Coder was specifically designed with the non-coder in mind.

In this short (and free) webinar, Frank Cohen (a non-coder himself) will help you understand the relationship between coding, billing, reimbursement and compliance without teaching you how to become a coder. It focuses on the big picture; understanding the language of coding, its importance within the medical practice and most importantly, how to identify and understand coding problems; from the common to the arcane.”

Although this webinar has already been presented, it is available to view by going to Frank’s website.

Did you find this information helpful? If you have information that you think would be valuable to the medical community and would like me to post the information on our blog, please submit your request for review to my attention at (or via DM on Twitter @fimed).

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June 10th, 2009 | No Comments »