Medicare Compliance & Reimbursement

There could be more associations between PCPs and specialists, expert predicts. "Primary care is carrying new clout these days, a change that could shake up business as usual in healthcare, which is definitely on the federal government's agenda. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is trying to shift more money to primary care, and in healthcare reform, there's essentially a 10 percent bonus for primary care physicians," observes Charles Root, PhD, president of CodeMap in Barrington, Ill. Root predicts PCPs will also benefit from the Accountable Care Organization movement as it takes shape. "Organizations that want to participate as ACOs and so on are going to have to have a significant number of PCPs in an organization. So there's definitely going to be a shift toward primary care," he says. "The most dramatic thing the Department of Health & Human Services has done in that regard" is the Medicare [...]