News
TELCOR is excited to share industry news and updates with our stakeholders across the country.
House Passes Bill Extending Moratorium on 2% Medicare Sequester Cuts Through End of 2021
On April 13, 2021, the House of Representatives voted 384-38 to pass a bill that, among other health care provisions, would eliminate the 2% across-the-board cut to all Medicare [...]
New Surprise-Billing Law on the Way
Andis Robeznieks, Senior News Writer, AMA, references the No Surprises Act:"Most importantly, the final version better reflected the principles that guided the AMA's response to unanticipated medical bills. This includes [...]
MedPAC Report on PAMA & CLFS
The Medicate Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) gave a presentation confirming that independent laboratories were overrepresented in PAMA's private-payer data relative to CLFS billing volume (slide 9). Additionally, they confirmed [...]
UHC Designated Diagnostic Provider Laboratory Questionnaire Deadline Extended to March 10, 2021
Designated Diagnostic Providers (DDP) are designed to support UHC members in choosing cost-effective and high-value care providers. For a lab to become a DPP and participate in the benefit [...]
Delays in Medicare 2021 Payments (UPDATED 02/04/21)
UPDATE (02/04/21): TELCOR billing service is now seeing Medicare and HRSA paying on 2021 claims. TELCOR has observed a trend with Medicare, where their payments are being held or [...]
CMS Puts Patients Over Paperwork with New Rule Addressing the Prior Authorization Process
CMS finalized a signature accomplishment of the new Office of Burden Reduction & Health Informatics (OBRHI). This final rule builds on the efforts to drive interoperability, empower patients, and reduce [...]
COVID-19 News from UnitedHealthcare: Temporary Cost Share Waivers for Testing and Testing-Related Visits Extended
Individual and Group Market health plans: From Feb. 4, 2020 through the national public health emergency period, currently scheduled to end April 20, 2021, UnitedHealthcare is waiving cost sharing for [...]
Extreme and Uncontrollable Circumstances Exception
To further support clinicians during the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency (PHE), CMS extended the 2020 Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) Extreme and Uncontrollable Circumstances Exception application deadline to February 1. [...]
Trump Signs COVID-19 Relief Package Provisions Affecting Pathologists, Laboratories
For several months, the CAP had urged Congress to enact additional relief to alleviate the effects of the coronavirus pandemic and further support pathologists and laboratories. In year-end legislation that [...]
ICD-10 Code Files for Fiscal Year 2021
In response to the COVID-19 public health emergency, new ICD-10 codes are effective January 1, 2021: 21 procedure codes (ICD-10-PCS): CMS will implement new codes to describe the introduction or [...]