On July 30th, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced that payment is available to physicians and health care providers to counsel patients, at the time of COVID-19 testing; about the importance of self-isolation after they are tested and prior to the onset of symptoms. CMS will use existing evaluation and management (E/M) payment codes to reimburse providers who are eligible to bill CMS for counseling services no matter where the test is administered. For more information, please click HERE. The CMS Counseling Check List is found HERE.
Regulators are no longer satisfied with documentation alone; they want evidence that your compliance program actively prevents, detects, and corrects risk. Investigators expect to see how issues are identified early, investigated thoroughly, corrected effectively, and monitored over time. Boards demand measurable insight, and leadership needs confidence that exposure is managed before it becomes a liability. The standard has shifted from activity to impact.