Medicare Compliance & Reimbursement

Program Transmittal Roundup

Patients with chronic wounds may have a new source of treatment hope: electromagnetic therapy.
 
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services originally decided not to cover electromagnetic therapy for wound healing. But the agency now has reconsidered and will cover the service starting July 1, CMS says in a March 19 program transmittal (change request 3149).

Medicare will cover e-magnetic therapy when a physician or physical therapist uses it to treat chronic Stage III or Stage IV pressure ulcers, arterial ulcers, diabetic ulcers and venous stasis ulcers, CMS says in its revision to the National Coverage Determinations Manual.

In other recent program transmittals, CMS:

  • issues pricing information for certain Part B-covered drugs and biologicals; 
  • reaffirms a noncoverage policy for current perception threshold/sensory nerve conduction tests (CR 2988);
  • schedules updates to the outpatient code editor (CR 3155).
         
    To see the transmittals, go to
    http://www.cms.hhs.gov/manuals/transmittals/comm_date_dsc.asp.
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