ASC Coding, Billing & Collections

Indiana-based physician billing management company Zotec Partners has expanded operations by acquiring Medical Business Service, a medical billing firm based in Florida, according to an Indianapolis Business Journal report.

Saginaw-based St. Mary's of Michigan will pay the government $3.49 million after disclosing its billing for chemotherapy treatments at a Huron Medical Center clinic did not comply with Medicare and Medicaid requirements, according to a Detroit Free Press report.

University of Minnesota Physicians group was recently reclassified from "physician office services" to "outpatient hospitals," increasing out-of-pocket costs for some Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield members as their medical billing switches from a co-pay to a deductible plus coinsurance, according…

In an article titled "Why Five out of Six Doctors Have Quit the AMA," healthcare speaker Chriss W. Street criticized the association for its "monopoly" on CPT codes, according to a Big Government report.

Republican lawmakers in Arkansas sent a letter to State Insurance Commissioner Jay Bradford this week urging him not to apply for a $3.8 million grant that would fund the state's health insurance exchange, according to an Arkansas News report.

Rising healthcare costs are expected to become the biggest challenge for U.S. state budgets, potentially eclipsing education spending over the next 10 years, according to a report by Fitch Ratings.

Recommended legislation on Maine's health insurance exchange has been completed and will be presented to the state's Insurance and Financial Services Committee on Monday, according to a Bloomberg Businessweek report.

Missouri lawmakers have stalled a discussion of the state's health insurance exchange because some senators do not want to implement an exchange system, according to a Public News Service report.

Physicians and other providers now have until Jan. 1, 2012, to begin using the revised Advanced Beneficiary Notice of Noncoverage form, according to an AAPC release.

Employers may not face penalties for refusing to offer affordable coverage to employee dependents, and they may not even have to extend coverage to dependents, depending on regulations unveiled this month by the Internal Revenue Service, according to a Business…