The Medisoft Network is available again after our continued work on our network upgrade.

If, after connecting and clicking the Medisoft icon, you get a pop-up message that says the data path cannot be found, click CANCEL.

Then, log out of the vWorkspace.

Then log right back into the vWorkspace.  Then click the Medisoft icon again and you should be able to get to the Medisoft login screen.

Thanks,

Steve

We have been advised that Comcast is having signal issues in our area that is affecting speed and connectivity of our Medisoft Network.

If you are working in Medisoft and become frozen OR if you have trouble connecting, keep trying.  Comcast has not advised when this signal issue in our area will be resolved.

In the next week or so we will be moving to Verizon Fios.  With Fios, we will have better connectivity and should not encounter signal issue problems like we are having with Comcast now.

Thanks for your understanding.

Steve

The problem with connectivity to the network apparently has been resolved.  We have tested using a few of our client IDs and been successful with each one.

So for those who could not connect go ahead and try again.

Thanks,

Steve

As a follow up to the News post this morning about slowness connecting to the network, many users are unable to connect at all.  It appears this issue is intermittent as some users can connect and others cannot.  The problem appears related to the faulty Comcast modem/router.

Our IT people are looking into this.  In the meantime the best suggestion if you cannot connect is to reboot and keep trying to connect.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Steve

  For providers who access Medisoft on our network, you will experience slowness in first launching Medisoft.  Usually when you click on the Medisoft icon Medisoft launches in 45-60 seconds, but now it will take 4-5 minutes before you get to the Medisoft login screen.

     BE PATIENT!  You will get to the login screen, but it will take longer than usual.

     Our IT people have determined the problem relates to Comcast's modem/router.  Last weekend Comcast did pay a service call but claimed there was nothing wrong with the modem/router, but apparently there is.

     The good news is later this week we will be changing our Internet provider from Comcast to Verizon Fios.  With this change you will see better connectivity AND faster upload and download speeds.  This is part of the overall network redesign being deployed this month.

     In the meantime unfortunately you will have to be patient while waiting for Medisoft to load on our Network...and you may experience intermittent, brief outages due to the problem with the modem/router.

Thanks for your understanding,
Steve

UPDATE:  The Medisoft Network is now available.  It may be necessary for us to reboot the servers during some maintenance/repairs today but as of now providers may connect to the network.  Thank you for your understanding.

The Medisoft Network is unavailable due to a system issue.  We are awaiting a call from Quest vWorkspace (supposedly within the hour) for assistance in resolving the issue.  We will post an update in the News section of the Support Suite when the issue has been resolved.

Thanks,

Steve

We have been experiencing intermittent outages with our Internet service.  Comcast has discovered that the problem is with their modem as they are experiencing a poor Downtream Power Level that causes the outage.

Therefore, they will be replacing our cable modem this Sunday, January 29th between 1:00 and 3:00 PM (Eastern Time).  At that time the network will be down. 

In the meantime, you may experience intermittent outages over the next few days due to the problem with the Comcast modem.  In advance, I apologize for any such inconvenience.

Steve

Phase One of our network upgrade has been completed.  Providers may again connect to the Medisoft Network.

Please note that the network upgrade will be done in phases so there will be down time on weekends in February.  We will post information about the down time in the News section of the Support Suite.

Thanks,

Steve

We will be upgrading our network this weekend.  Therefore, the Medisoft Network will be unavailable beginning this Saturday, January 21st at 9:00 AM (Eastern Time) through late on Sunday, January 22nd.

Providers will be unavailable to access Medisoft during this time.

The upgrade will include improved security and backup.

In addition, we will be moving away from using Dell's vWorkspace for connecting to the network to Remote Desktop Web Connection.  The reason for this is simple.  Last year Dell sold its entire software division, including vWorkspace.  The company that purchased the software division is phasing vWorkspace out.  They will be providing limited support for the foreseeable future but no new upgrades or releases.  Therefore, it is crucial for us to switch to another means of connectivity.

We expect the transfer from vWorkspace to Remote Desktop Web Connection to be completed by Sunday evening.  If so, we will post information in the News section of the Support Suite about the new connectivity to the network.  It is actually quite simple.  You would simply log in at the website, www.medicalbillingclaims.com, where you would see the icons available to you.  You then would click the Medisoft icon to launch the program.

If the upgrade to the network takes longer than expected, we will not transition this weekend to Remote Desktop Web Connection but will schedule it for another time.

Either way providers should check the News section of the Support Suite for updated network information.

Thanks,

Steve

For providers who use Payment Manager, you may receive a notice about an expired certificate when trying to access the website.

From now on, access Payment Manager via the following website:  https://rcm.emdeon.com/Portal/.

Thanks,

Steve

Medicare's New MACRA Quality Payment Program

All providers should by now know that Medicare will be moving from a fee for service reimbursement system to a value based program.  Under MACRA's Quality Payment Program, providers will be required to report quality measures in order to ensure that providers receive either an increase in payment or at least a neutral adjustment.

Most providers will be under MIPS:  the Merit-based Incentive Payment System.

WHO MUST REPORT:

• Providers who bill at least $30,000 in allowed charges per year to Medicare OR who see at least 100 different Medicare patients per year must report
• It is important to understand in the above that the $30,000 minimum amount is based on the allowed amount from Medicare, NOT what you bill.
• As an example, let's say Medicare allows $30 for a 98940 code.  That would equate to 1000 visits for the year to equal $30,000 in allowed charges (or approximately 20 Medicare visits per week)
• All DCs, MDs, DOs, NPs must report beginning in 2017.
• PTs do not have to report in 2017 (but presumably will have to report in 2018)
• It is also important to understand that this only applies to Medicare Part B.  The QPP does NOT apply to Medicare Advantage HMO Plans and does not apply to commercial payers.  This only applies to patients who have traditional Medicare Part B.

HOW WILL IT AFFECT YOUR REIMBURSEMENT:

• Data reported in 2017 will affect their 2019 reimbursements (data reported in 2018 will affect 2020 reimbursements, etc).
• Because 2017 is the first year of reporting, providers have 3 options:  full year of reporting, partial year (90 days) of reporting or no reporting.
• For providers who report quality measures for the entire 2017 year, you will receive in 2019 up to the maximum of a 4% positive adjustment.
• For providers who report 90 days of measures in 2017, you will receive in 2019 either a small positive adjustment or a neutral adjustment
• For providers who report minimum data during 2017 (such as only one quality measure per visit), you will have a neutral adjustment in 2019.
• For providers who do not report any measures in 2017, you will receive a -4% negative adjustment for your payments in 2019.

HOW CAN YOU REPORT:

• Providers can report through a registry, through most EMRS that are certified for meaningful use OR by claims-based reporting
• For providers who report via claims-based reporting, it is our understanding that you will use existing PQRS codes (such as G8539, G8742, etc) to report.
• HOWEVER, unlike PQRS where providers generally reported only 2 measures, it is the recommendation of some coding experts that providers under MACRA will have to report more measures (and thus more codes) under claims-based reporting.
• For providers who choose claims-based reporting, you would simply indicate the appropriate CPT codes like G8539 and G8742 on the billing log with the other CPT codes being billed for a patient.
• FOR EXAMPLE, for John Smith for 1/3/17, you may want to report 98940-AT, G8539, G8730 or 98940-AT, G8942, G8730).  Again, though you may need to report more than the 2 measures indicated here.
• For providers who are submitting billing to us via an EMR program like EZNotes, Amazing Charts or Practice Fusion, you must select the appropriate codes (like G8539, G8730, G8942) in your program so they appear on the billing report you provide to us.

SHOULD YOU REPORT?

• It is up to all providers to determine if it is worth complying with the new MACRA QPP reporting requirements.
• As an example, if Medicare allows currently $35 for a 98941 and you do not report, you would be subject to a 4% penalty in 2019.  That would equal $1.40 per visit.  Some providers may decide it is worth being paid $1.40 less per Medicare visit rather than having to comply with MACRA's QPP.
• It is your responsibility to report the codes to us for billing.  If you do not report the necessary claims-based codes to us, we will be submitting the claims as you submit to us (without the PQRS codes). Remember, if you DO want to comply, you will be reporting the codes on EVERY visit for your patients.

RESOURCES:

• There is a lot that is still unknown about this program.  Medicare does have information available about the breakdown of the new reporting requirements at https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Quality-Initiatives-Patient-Assessment-Instruments/Value-Based-Programs/MACRA-MIPS-and-APMs/MACRA-MIPS-and-APMs.html.
• Also check out:  https://qpp.cms.gov/measures/quality.
• We also encourage providers to view Webinars that various companies offer.
• For our chiropractic clients, we recommend Dr. Marty Kotlar of Target Coding.  Besides offering webinars, he also does seminars throughout the country and he does have a webinar on his You Tube Channel about the QPP:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWoVtgGDZis.

Thanks,
Steve

Survey Regarding Office Ally Clearinghouse

            We currently are submitting your claims either direct to payers (like Medicare and some Blue Cross Blue Shield plans) or via the Availity clearinghouse.

            However, from time to time providers may need proof of timely filing which is difficult to provide.  In addition, there are times when providers simply want to confirm that payers have received and processed claims.

            Therefore, we are considering switching and sending claims to the Office Ally clearinghouse.

            First, Office Ally has a more extensive payer list than Availity (in fact, we currently submit some claims to Office Ally for payers that are not available via Availity).

            Second, providers can search themselves the claim status and view proof of filing right on Office Ally’s web portal in the Claim Search box.

            We are asking providers to get back to us to let us know if you would be interested in us switching you to Office Ally (note:  responding yes does not obligate you; we would discuss more via email).

            COSTS:  Are there any costs for this?  Yes and no. 

·         If 50% or more of your claims submitted during the month are to Government/Non-Par payers, Office Ally charges $19.95 for that month. 

·         BUT if less than 50% of your claims submitted during the month are to Government/Non-Par payers, there is no fee charged by Office Ally.

·         MOST claims are free/par claims, but Government payers like Medicare not free.  To help you determine your percentage, you can view the Office Ally Payer List at:  https://cms.officeally.com/Pages/ResourceCenter/PayerLists/PayerList.aspx.

·         NOTE:  Because we currently submit almost all Medicare claims direct, you also could have the option of us continuing to submit Medicare claims direct BUT submit all other claims for your practice via the Office Ally clearinghouse.

 PLEASE RESPOND via fax (215-243-4571) or via email:

OFFICE NAME:  _______________________________________

Your Name:        ________________________________________

RESPONSE:      _____  Yes, we would be interested in more info about submitting our claims via Office Ally.

                           ______ No, we want to keep our claim submission as it currently is.

We Have a New Fax Number

To avoid the problem of providers receiving a busy signal when faxing to us (when we are at the same time faxing out), we have a new fax number dedicated to receiving faxes.

Our new fax number is 215-243-4571.

Providers should note in their records this new number when you fax to us.

Thanks,
Steve

The Medisoft Network is currently unavailable as our network was hit by malware/ransomware.  Our IT person is working to fix the issue and enable acess to the network.

We will post another item in the News section when the network is again available.

Steve

Survey Regarding Web Based EHRs

This email is for our chiropractic, physical therapy and behavioral health clients.  WE ARE ASKING ALL OF OUR CLIENTS IN THESE SPECIALTIES TO READ THE BELOW EMAIL AND REPLY BACK TO US ADVISING IF YOU MAY OR MAY NOT BE INTERESTED IF WE OFFERED SUCH AN INTEGRATED EHR SYSTEM.

AND NOTE:  THAT IF WE DO OFFER INTEGRATED SYSTEMS WITH ANY OF THE BELOW EHRS, YOU WILL BE ELIGIBLE FOR OUR EMR REWARDS PROGRAM IN WHICH YOU WILL SAVE 10% EACH MONTH ON YOUR INVOICE WITH US...in some cases enough to pay for the cost of the EHR!!

More and more practices are interested in an integrated system where the practice can have an EHR and also integrate with a Practice Management System.

Most of the time the Practice Management Systems that EHRs offer lack many important features that we find important in our Medisoft.

However, we are looking at 3 possible integrated programs to offer our clients that offer many important features for possible integration:  WebPT (for physical therapists), Chiro Fusion (for chiropractors) and either TherapyNotes for behavioral health providers.

The way it would work with each system is simple.

• We would enter all patient demographics in the EHR, including setting up all payers and procedure codes.
• The provider would chart the patient in the EHR and select the appropriate CPT codes and ICD10 codes.
• Each day we would log into the EHR, scrub the claims, correct them for any errors (such as missing modifiers or incorrect CPT codes listed for payers) and then submit the claims.
• We would post all payments in the EHR, including copays and insurance payments
• You would be able to see in the EHR all payments, see patient balances in real time and be able to run patient statements upon demand
• You would be able to see in each program open claims based upon the payer's aging reports.
• You would have to be enrolled for our PremiumPlus Service for the above

Although the Medisoft software we offer is better than the Practice Management Systems offered by any of these EHRs, they all do offer quality programs.

AGAIN, TO HELP US GAUGE THE INTEREST OF INTEGRATED SYSTEMS, PLEASE SIMPLY EMAIL US AND ADVISE IF YOU MAY OR MAY NOT BE INTERESTED IN WE OFFERED SUCH AN INTEGRATED SYSTEM.  Note:  If you say yes, you are not obligated to use the new system if offered.

And if you have any questions about any of the EHRs, don't hesitate to ask.

Thanks,
Steve

Some providers have had problems accessing the Support Suite site, http://support.mbpros.com.

This site redirects to https://mbpros.deskpro.com.

If you are unable to get to the site http://support.mbpros.com, just log in to https://mbpros.deskpro.com.

And the link to the new Support Suite (https://mbpros.deskpro.com) is also available under the Resources page on our main website.

Thanks,

Steve

We will be closed Wednesday, October 12th for Yom Kippur.

Any billing received Tuesday (October 11th) will be submitted by Thursday, October 13th.

Any billing received Wednesday (October 12th) will be submitted by Friday, October 14th.

Any tickets submitted on October 12th will be responded to by Thursday, October 13th.

Thanks,

Steve

We will be exhibiting at the California Physical Therapy Association Annual Meeting in Santa Clara this weekend.

For any of our clients who will be attending, be sure to stop by Booth 310 to say hello.

There will be no delay in claim submissions.  Any billing submitted on Friday will be submitted by Monday, October 8th at the latest.

For any support tickets submitted Friday afternoon (October 7th) we will respond to those tickets by Monday, October 8th.

Thanks,

Steve

As a follow-up to the News item regarding the max size of attachments being 10 MB to tickets, there is a workaround that does allow for submitting larger attachments.

Providers may submit a ticket with a large attachment (max size 25MB) via email under the following conditions:

• The attachment MUST be password protected.
• If you do not have the ability in your PDF program to password protect a document, you can do so quickly and easily for free online at https://www.pdfprotect.net/.
• You can then send an email to contact@mbpros.deskpro.com.  You MUST use this email address for submitting a ticket with a large attachment.
• You CANNOT use this method of submission if you also have to enter confidential information in the body of the message (for example, you submit a ticket indicating that John Smith has new insurance information and you attach all of your billing for a date).
• As a work-around for the above, you can submit a ticket via email with the large file attached and indicate in the body of the message something like "Billing for September 28, 2016)".
• If you then also have to provide confidential patient info pertaining to that ticket, you can log into the Support Suite, locate the ticket and reply with the needed info.
• Providers should not try to submit a ticket by submitting an email to our primary email address. 
• This method of ticket submission is ONLY if you are submitting a ticket with an attachment between 10MB and 25MB.  Otherwise, providers should log in to the Support Suite to submit any ticket.

Thanks,

Steve

When we reply to a ticket you have created in the new Support Suite OR when we have created a ticket for you, you will receive email notification to log in and reply to the ticket.

For example, if a patient's claim denied because coverage had terminated, you will receive notification to log in, view the ticket we created, and provide the info needed.

IF YOU DO NOT REPLY WITHIN 2 DAYS, you will receive a friendly email reminder to log in and reply.

IF YOU STILL HAVE NOT REPLIED WITHIN 7 DAYS OF THE ORIGINAL TICKET, you will receive a final warning via email to reply.

IMPORTANT:  In the email notifications sent after 2 days and after 7 days, the email notification will indicate you can reply to the email (see example at the bottom of this News item) BUT DO NOT REPLY VIA EMAIL AS THAT IS NOT SECURE AND NOT HIPAA COMPLIANT.  BE SURE TO LOG IN AND REPLY IN THE SUPPORT SUITE TO THE TICKET.

If you fail to reply within 7 days of the original ticket, the ticket will automatically close.

Thanks,

Steve

For providers who upload billing or EOBs as attachments to tickets, the maximum size of the attachments in one ticket is 10MB.

This size is sufficient for most uploads.  However, some practices, when scanning EOBs, encountered errors in the old Support Suite due to the size of the files.

When scanning, providers should make sure they are NOT scanning in OCR (or searchable) mode.  When you scan in OCR mode, it SIGNIFICANTLY increases the size of your PDF file.

If you are not sure if your scanner has OCR capability or how to turn off OCR, feel free to contact me with the make and model number of your scanner and I will try to research the issue for you.

If you are NOT scanning in OCR mode and you have a very large file that would be more than 10MB, break the file up into a couple of smaller files.

Steve

We have added the chiropractic billing guides for Novitas JH and JL to the Downloads section of the website.

For our chiropractic clients in the states covered by Novitas, you should access the appropriate guide to ensure that claims do not deny.

REMEMBER, you must use a diagnosis code from Group 1 (on page 4 of the Guide) as your PRIMARY diagnosis code.

For the secondary diagnosis code, you must use a diagnosis code listed amoung Groups 2-5 (pages 5-11 of the Guide):

• If you use a secondary diagnosis code from Group 2, you are limited to 12 visits per year.
• If you use a secondary diagnosis code from Group 3, you are limited to 18 visits per year
• If you use a secondary diagnosis code from Group 4, you are limited to 24 visits per year
• If you use a secondary diagnosis code from Group 5, you are limited to 30 visits per year

Except for providers enrolled in our Authorization and Tracking Service, it is your responsibility to track the number of visits.  Once the patient has used the number of allowed visits per the Guide, you MUST have the patient sign an ABN and you must continue to bill Medicare with the GA modifier (you cannot switch the patient to a cash patient).

You must also notify us immediately once the patient has signed an ABN so we will bill with the GA modifier for the rest of the calendar year.

Steve

On October 1, 2016, there will be changes to ICD 10 codes with over 300 ICD 10 codes deleted and new, more specific ICD 10 codes added. 

To help our chiropractic clients, we have added a PDF to the Downloads section of the Support Suite summarizing the new codes and the deleted codes. 

Click here to see the PDF in the Downloads section.

NOTE:  the deleted codes will be shown in red and the newly added codes will be shown in blue.

IT IS YOUR OFFICE'S RESPONSIBILITY TO UPDATE PATIENT ICD 10 CODES WHEN SUBMITTING BILLING TO ENSURE YOU ARE USING ACCURATE ICD 10 CODES.  If you use an ICD 10 code that has been deleted as of October 1, 2016, those claims will deny electronically.

Thanks,

Steve

Welcome to the New Support Suite.  Feel free to contact us with any questions about the site.