On Wednesday, December 16th, President Obama signed a short term spending measure that will allow the Federal government to continue to operate until December 22, allowing Congress to finalize its long anticipated Omnibus appropriations and tax break extender legislation that will fund the Federal government for the remainder of the 2016 fiscal year. Two important […]
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AOPA Funded Systematic Review Protocol by Dr. Michael Dillon, PhD Available Now
December 9, 2015 at 11:10 am
AOPA’s commitment to O&P research has resulted in an increase of funding to pilot grants, systematic reviews, and other special projects. The protocol for a recently funded systematic review is available to read now. This is an increasingly relevant topic: it presents a systematic review now underway of outcomes of dysvascular partial foot amputation and how […]
PDAC Announces Coding Verification Review for Ankle Gauntlets
December 9, 2015 at 9:05 am
The Pricing, Data Analysis and Coding contractor (PDAC) has announced that due to a change in the 2016 descriptor verbiage for L1902 and L1904, it will initiate a new coding verification for any ankle gauntlet style devices that contain joints that are currently listed on the PDAC site under L2999. Read the announcement. It is […]
Attend the First Coding & Billing Seminar of 2016
December 3, 2015 at 4:20 pm
AOPA is pleased to announce that the first Mastering Medicare: Essential Coding & Billing Techniques Seminar will be in Tampa, Florida January 25-26 at the Tampa Marriott Westshore. AOPA experts provide the most up-to-date information to help O&P Practitioners and office billing staff learn how to code complex devices, including repairs and adjustments, through interactive discussions […]
2016 Medicare DMEPOS Fee Schedule Released
November 30, 2015 at 10:08 am
On November 23, 2015, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released the 2016 Medicare DMEPOS fee schedule. As expected, Medicare fees for orthotic and prosthetic devices will be slightly lower in 2016 than they were in 2015. The annual update to the Medicare O&P fee schedule is based on a combination of the […]
RAC Contractors Have Been Authorized to Re-Start Audit Activity
November 17, 2015 at 10:13 am
It has been remarkably quiet on the Recovery Audit Contractor (RAC) front for the last 18 months or so. As a result of the original RAC contracts coming to an end and new RAC contract proposals being submitted and reviewed, the number of additional documentation requests (ADRs) has been reduced significantly. CMS advised its original […]
2016 HCPCS Codes Released
November 4, 2015 at 1:25 pm
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has released the new HCPCS codes for 2016. There were no L-codes added or deleted for 2016. There were two minor verbiage changes for codes L1902 and L1904, which describe pre-fabricated and custom fabricated ankle gauntlet style devices respectively. Below is a breakdown of the code descriptor […]
Data, Hard Work, and Unified O&P/Amputee Community Response Yield PARTIAL WIN on Troublesome, Draft LCD for Lower Limb Prosthetics
November 2, 2015 at 3:53 pm
The White House just announced that CMS “will not finalize” the July 16, 2015 Draft LCD. That may be clarified further when comparable announcement text from both CMS and from the DME MACs are released and can be analyzed. The White House report appears to confirm the information that AOPA shared at the recent San […]
Obama White House Disappoints With Interim Response to “We the People” Petition on LCD
October 19, 2015 at 8:32 am
AOPA Reacts Over 100,000 people took President Obama at his word when they shared their names, email addresses and trust in/commitment to government, signing on in 17 days to surpass the 100,000 signatures required to prompt direct White House intervention and action on the draft lower prosthetic LCD. Others were skeptical, seeing the We the […]
2015 National Assembly Highlights
October 13, 2015 at 2:47 pm
The 98th Annual AOPA National Assembly October 7-10 held in conjunction with the Texas Chapter of the American Academy of Orthotics and Prosthetics drew 2,200 O&P professionals to San Antonio, Texas. Whether it was the magnet power of San Antonio, the programming, the convenient facilities or all of the above, the initial feedback has been […]