Chiropractic OnLine Today's
HealthBeat

    Welcome to COT's HealthBeat Podcast
        Chiropractic OnLine Today is pleased to present a
    Chiropractic "Radio" Segment to the Health Community.
               Return to HealthBeat main page

Please Vote for HealthBeat!
 

HEALTHBEAT SHOW NOTES .... Episode #156 - Recorded July 4, 2008  

Hello and welcome to this week’s edition of HealthBeat, Chiropractic OnLine Today’s Health, News and Informational Podcast, and Proud to be the #1 Search Result for Chiropractic Podcasts in the iTunes Podcast Directory.

In this week’s news:  We’ll Look At –

• US Senate Defeats Medicare Bill

• Reminder – Practitioners need to use National Provider IDs

• Updated Medicare ABN Form

• And Finally, a story about Preventing Injury in Childhood

For HealthBeat, This is Dr. Todd Eglow!

Welcome to HealthBeat Podcast #156, recorded July 4, 2008.  Happy Independence Day to our US Listeners!

HealthBeat is Chiropractic OnLine Today’s radio program, providing current news and commentary about Chiropractic and Health.

This week’s Episode is sponsored by DaVinci Laboratories.  Please surf to our web site at www.ChiropracticRadio.com and click on the DaVinci link for your Health and Nutritional needs.

For those of you who have emailed us about our Show Notes, we have updated the page so that all the audio Episodes are now available.  We do apologize for any inconvenience.

A quick note…. We will be updating our RSS feed in the next few weeks…. This is the number of shows that are available for direct downloads.  Please remember that all our episodes are available for download from our web site, again located at www.chiropracticradio.com

We also would appreciate your passing the word of our Podcasts to your friends and colleagues.  Please let everyone know how easy it is to subscribe via iTunes.

If you are interested in creating personalized Healthbeat podcasts for your office or website, to help attract new patients, please surf to our web site and send us an Email ….

…. or Skype us by typing in “healthbeat”, all in small letters.

We are always looking to expand our interactivity with you, our loyal Health Community.  If you would like to be kept up-to-date with current events about Health, Technology and ME, feel free to surf to – http://www.twitter.com/teglow and click on the Follow link.

Next, we would like to send out a big Thank You to those of you who are linking our Podcast to your home pages.... We do request that you also include a link to our main Podcast Page at www.ChiropracticRadio.com

And as always, a big thank you to our COT HealthBeat Listener community.  This podcast is made available thru the generous donations we receive and greatly appreciate.  If you could remember to surf to our Web Site and click on the PayPal link to make a monthly donation, even $5-$10, this would be very much welcomed.

Finally, Chiropractic OnLine Today has always provided our news and education content for free and plan on continuing this policy.  However, we do request that if you are enjoying these podcasts, that you surf to ChiropracticRadio.com and consider clicking on our PayPal link to make a donation to keep these Podcasts airing.  We thank everyone for their continued support.

And Now for some news ….

This podcast is made available through the generous donations from our great Listeners, such as You!  If you are enjoying these HealthBeat Podcasts, Please surf to our Web Site and click on the PayPal link.

For information about adding Personalized HealthBeat Podcasts to your office’s Web Site, to help you attract new patients, please Email us at – healthbeat@chiropracticradio.com

US Senate Defeats Medicare Bill

Updating a story from last week’s HealthBeat Podcast, the US Senate narrowly failed to approve a House-passed bill to cancel a scheduled cut in payments to doctors who treat Medicare patients.

The bill would have increased Medicare reimbursements to doctors by 1.1 percent starting in January. Instead, reimbursements will drop 10.6 percent, starting Tuesday.  A 10% pay cut is set to go into effect on July 1, which will cut the Medicare payments to doctors, and could result in problems for Medicare patients.  The vote came in on Thursday night, just before the week-long Fourth of July recess planned.

Republican minority leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky offered a 30-day extension of the current law which was turned down by Harry Reid, Democratic majority leader from Nevada.  President Bush has threatened to veto the bill if passed.  Reid, at the last moment, switched his vote though, meaning the bill will come up again.

The bill failed, 58-40, to reach the 60 votes needed to end GOP blockage of a House-passed bill (HR 6331) that would avert the administration's 10.6 percent cut in Medicare payments set for July 1.

Presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama voted yes and Presumptive Republican nominee McCain did not vote. A yes vote was to advance the bill.

In a late news update, around Noon on Monday June 30, 2008, according to the Associated Press, the Bush administration said Monday it will delay paying doctors for treating Medicare patients in early July to give Congress more time to block a scheduled 10.6 percent fee cut.

The decision by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services doesn't block the cut, scheduled to take place Tuesday. It's up to Congress to decide that.

But to give Congress more time to act, the agency will instruct its contractors not to process any physician or non-physician Medicare claims for health care services given during the first 10 business days of July. Claims for services received on before June 30 will be processed as usual.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jucINN3POiwPC9YNtNKHQ2lSofkAD91KH2280

http://www.in-forum.com/ap/index.cfm?page=view&id=D91JST201

http://chattahbox.com/health/2008/06/29/senate-does-not-block-medicare-pay-cut-before-recess/

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/5861321.html

Reminder – Practitioners need to use National Provider IDs

Effective May 23, 2008, all Medicare providers will be required to use ONLY their NPI number when filing Medicare claims. 

The reporting of Medicare legacy numbers after this date will result in claim denial.  The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recommends sending one or two claims with ONLY the NPI number and if those claims are paid, to continue to increase the volume of NPI-only claims.

If your CMS-1500 claims are rejected, you may first wish to visit the National Plan and Provider Enumerator System (NPPES) Web site to make sure all of the information for your NPI is accurate.  If claims continue to be rejected, have a copy of your NPPES record in hand (available on the NPPES Web site) and contact your Medicare Contractor.

When submitting claims, make sure that you pair your individual legacy number with your individual NPI number and that claims submitted using your group Medicare number are paired with your group NPI.

For more information, see the NPI portion of the ACA Web site or visit the CMS Web.

http://www.cms.hhs.gov/NationalProvIdentStand/

http://www.acatoday.org/content_css.cfm?CID=1267

https://nppes.cms.hhs.gov/NPPES/Welcome.do

Updated Medicare ABN Form

On Monday, March 3, 2008, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the CMS, implemented the use of the revised Advance Beneficiary Notice of Non-coverage (ABN) (CMS-R-131).

This form replaces the General Use ABN (CMS-R-131-G), and the Lab ABN (CMS-R-131-L) for physician ordered laboratory tests. The form and notice instructions will be posted on the Beneficiary Notice Initiative web page (http://www.cms.hhs.gov/bni/).

Some key features of the new form are that it:

• Has a new official title, the “Advance Beneficiary Notice of Non-coverage (ABN)”, in order to more clearly convey the purpose of the notice;

• Replaces both the existing ABN-G and ABN-L;

• May also be used for voluntary notifications, in place of the Notice of Exclusion from Medicare Benefits (NEMB);

• Has a mandatory field for cost estimates of the items/services at issue; and

• Includes a new beneficiary option, under which an individual may choose to receive an item/service, and pay for it out-of-pocket, rather than have a claim submitted to Medicare.

The CMS will allow a 6-month transition period from the date of implementation for use of the revised form and instructions. Thus, all providers and suppliers must begin using the new ABN (CMS-R-131) no later than September 1, 2008.

Questions about the new ABN may be sent to: RevisedABN_ODF@cms.hhs.gov

Surf to our Show Notes for a link to this new ABN form - http://www.acatoday.org/content_css.cfm?CID=2769

Preventing Injury in Childhood

The British Medical Journal recently reported on UK Child Safety Week, launched by the Child Accident Prevention Trust on June 23 this year. Its aim is to raise awareness of childhood accidents and prevention strategies.

Unintentional injury accounts for around one in five of all deaths in children and adolescents in the European Union with the highest injury rates occurring in Greece, Estonia, and Belgium.

In the United Kingdom, unintentional injury is a leading cause of death and illness in children and is the most common cause of hospital admission—it accounts for around two million visits to accident and emergency departments each year, at a cost to the NHS of around £146m ( 182m; $288m).

Injury in childhood is strongly associated with poverty, and death rates from unintentional injury in the UK are around three times higher in children from the poorest families than in those from the least poor families.

Surf to our Show Notes for more information - http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/short/336/7658/1388?etoc

As always, please surf to our Podcast Show Notes at ChiropractiRadio.com for a full listing of web references mentioned in today’s show.

And remember - COT’s Healthbeat always recommends discussing any nutritional or exercise lifestyle modifications with a qualified healthcare professional.

Thank you for listening…. As always, We Want to hear from you.  Please send us emails…. Simply surf to our Web Site at ChiropracticRadio.com and click on the Email link.

You can also leave us Voice Mail…. Simply open up your Skype and type in “healthbeat”, all in small letters.

If you have an idea for a future Health Segment, please feel free to contact me directly via email …. The address is: healthbeat@chiropracticradio.com

We also would appreciate your votes both at Podcastalley.com.  If you are enjoying these podcasts, please surf to our HealthBeat homepage and click on the Podcast Alley link and Yahoo links.

If you have a Web Site for your practice and you would like to add content to help attract more patients, please consider adding a Personalized HealthBeat segments to your site. Many listeners are finding this a useful content addition to an Office’s Web Site.  For more information, please send me an Email at healthbeat@chiropracticradio.com

While at our Web Site, please remember to consider making a donation to help keep these Podcasts airing.  Listener support such as yours, via our PayPal link, does help in allowing us to bring these Podcasts to you weekly.

And please remember to support our sponsors by clicking their links located at ChiropracticRadio.com

Finally, I leave you with the following quote:

"Trust yourself. Think for yourself. Act for yourself. Speak for yourself. Be yourself."
– Marva Collins

For Chiropractic OnLine Today’s HealthBeat, This is Dr. Todd Eglow.

Please Vote for HealthBeat on Podcast Alley!