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July 26, 2007
The FMA E-News is emailed to all members of the Florida Medical Association semimonthly. The FMA, located in Tallahassee, Fla., serves as an advocate for physicians and their patients to promote the public health, to ensure high standards in medical education and ethics, and to enhance the quality and availability of health care. |
Requests for Information Available on the Remittance Advice
New federal regulations and guidelines require Medicare contractors to advise providers to refer to the remittance advice whenever written or telephone inquiries/questions are received. Providers are also advised that billing staff or representatives who make inquiries on the provider's behalf will need a copy of the remittance advice in question. In accordance with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) mandate, when the provider or representative's inquiry/question is relative to information that can be found on the RA, then the customer service representatives (CSRs) will refer the customer to the interactive voice response (IVR) unit for assistance. CMS is encouraging Medicare providers to use the self-service tools and products available to facilitate and understand the Medicare program. To educate themselves and their representatives about reading and understanding the RA, providers can take advantage of the training material "Understanding the Remittance Advice: A Guide for Medicare Providers, Physicians, Suppliers, and Billers" on the CMS Web site at http://www.cms.hhs.gov/MLNProducts/downloads/RA_Guide_Full_03-22-06.pdf.
Medicare Provider Contact Center Training Plan for August
2007
The Florida Part B Provider Contact Center will be closed on the following dates
for training:
* Friday, August 03, 2007 from 8:00 – 10:00 a.m.
* Friday, August 10, 2007 from 8:00 – 10:00 a.m.
* Friday, August 24, 2007 from 8:00 – 10:00 a.m.
* Friday, August 31, 2007 from 8:00 – 10:00 a.m.
Although the customer service representatives will not be available, the
Medicare Part B IVR (Interactive Voice Response) unit will be available as usual
at 1-877-847-4992 (toll-free). For specific claims information, the IVR hours
are 6:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. Monday through Friday. For recorded information on
current Medicare issues, the IVR hours are: 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
New FMA Online
Course & Journal on Disaster Preparedness
The Florida
Medical Association urges its members to remember that organized medicine in
Florida must stand ready to respond in times of crisis or disaster, whether the
threat be severe weather, violent acts, or disease outbreaks.
Click here for the latest CME online
course, "Ensuring the Survival of Your Patients & Practice During a
Disaster." Look for your copy of the Journal of the Florida Medical Association
dedicated to the topic of Disaster Preparedness in early August.
Sanofi
Pasteur Announces Completion of New U.S. Influenza Vaccine Manufacturing
Facility
Sanofi
Pasteur, the vaccine division of the Sanofi-Aventis Group, announced the
completion of construction of its new influenza vaccine manufacturing facility
that is expected to more than double its production capacity in the United
States. The new facility will enable Sanofi Pasteur to more than double the
site's capacity to over 100 million doses of influenza vaccines per year. The
new manufacturing facility is currently projected to be online in late 2008 or
early 2009 following the facility's licensing by the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration. For more information, visit http://www.sanofipasteur.com.
Just a reminder, if you have not already ordered your flu vaccine for the
2007-2008 flu season, you should do so immediately to ensure receiving your
order.
Blue Cross Blue Shield Settlement Notice
The notice of
the BCBS settlement will be mailed to class members on Friday, July 27. The
notice will also be available on the FMA Web site at
www.fmaonline.org.
National Plan and Provider Enumeration System (NPPES)
FOIA Disclosable Data Available on August 1st
The NPI
Registry, a query-only database, will be operational on August 1, 2007. The NPI
Registry will operate in a real-time environment. This means that
FOIA-disclosable data for newly enumerated providers, as well as updates and
changes to enumerated providers' FOIA-disclosable data, will be available in the
NPI Registry as that information is applied to NPPES. The NPI Registry will
enable a user to query by, for example, NPI or provider name, and will return a
list of all NPPES records that meet the query specifications. The user selects
from that list the NPPES records he/she wants to see. The NPI Registry will
then display the FOIA-disclosable data for those records. About a week later,
CMS will make available a file for downloading that will contain the
FOIA-disclosable NPPES data of enumerated health care providers. Technical
expertise will be required to download that file and to import that data into a
relational database or to otherwise manipulate the data. CMS will be furnishing
more information about data dissemination, including a "Read Me" file, Header
File, and Code Value document for the downloadable file, and will make that
information available on the CMS NPI web page at
http://www.cms.hhs.gov/NationalProvIdentStand/06a_DataDissemination.asp.
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