Merlino Healthcare Consulting Corp. - Services for Medical Societies

Your organization provides a valuable service if it can provide coding and reimbursement information to your members.

Professional medical societies and organizations play a key role in assisting the government in shaping billing systems, codes and policies because medical professionals are the developers of peer-reviewed healthcare literature and practice guidelines, and understand all aspects of clinical practice. This knowledge is critical for government agencies and private payers when they set coding, coverage and payment policy.

Additionally, your members look to your organization as a source of reliable coding and billing information for their own use.

Merlino Healthcare Consulting assists professional societies and organizations with the development, review and implementation of reimbursement strategies. We design and assist in the preparation of survey tools that identify your members’ reimbursement needs, and assist you in developing and implementing reimbursement initiatives to meet those needs.

Merlino Healthcare Consulting monitors important reimbursement web sites, government agencies and other professional organizations’ communications to keep your leaders and members informed of new or revised reimbursement policies, including coding, national and local coverage, and payments that are important to your organization's specialty.

We provide guidance to foster and maintain reimbursement relationships with important government agencies and private payers. We obtain and seek to influence payers’ clarification on coding, coverage and payment issues, including submitting and obtaining important supporting documentation.

Merlino Healthcare Consulting provides assistance to facilitate your coding committee’s activities. We assist in the development of materials and provide analysis to support submission of code applications. We staff and prepare presenters, as well as provide summary and follow-up for code applications to the following organizations and committees:

* American Medical Association (AMA) Current Procedural Terminology (CPT®) codes
o CPT® Editorial Panel
o Relative Value Scale Update Committee (RUC)
o Practice Expense Advisory Committee (PEAC)
* Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Healthcare Common Procedure Code System (HCPCS) codes
* American Hospital Association National Uniform Billing Committee (NUBC) Hospital Revenue Codes

Our staff monitors and reviews payment policies that are important to your members. We identify potential reimbursement activities for leader and member discussion. We also supply written summaries and analysis and assist with preparations of responses to the published proposed and final rules of U.S. and international government agencies, including Medicare, Medicaid, private payers and state, local and international payers.***

We assist you with all aspects of your members’ local and national payer issues. Merlino Healthcare Consulting can facilitate written and verbal communications with payers. We can facilitate meetings and prepare participants for discussions and negotiations. Our staff provides economic and clinical documentation and assists you in resolving payer policy issues.

We monitor, investigate and review drafts and final national and local medical review policies that affect your organization’s procedures and products. Our staff prepares summary and initial recommendations on draft and final policies for your organization’s review. We also obtain the resources and documentation you need, and use our extensive network of contacts to help resolve your payer issues.

Merlino Healthcare Consulting researches, designs and provides content for educational seminars on coding and reimbursement, including PowerPoint presentations from basic to complex topics. We provide expert presenters or written materials and authoritative documentation for your leaders’ or members’ presentations, whether on site (face to face), via conference call, video or on the Web.

Working closely with your organization’s committees, our staff helps develop and coordinate responses to member coding and reimbursement questions, and we prepare frequently-asked-question content for web or other publications.

Merlino Healthcare Consulting identifies and obtains authoritative documentation. We develop reimbursement content and materials for all your organization’s publication needs. This includes material for Web sites, e-mail notification, fax alerts, peer-reviewed journals, newsletters, frequently-asked-questions, PowerPoint presentations, brochures, books, CDs, etc. (sample newsletter articles)

As a way of generating additional income for your organization, our staff can assist your marketing department in identifying reimbursement groups, publications and list serves whose members or participants may have an interest in your organization’s reimbursement resources.

If you are interested in finding out more about our services, contact us at Merlino Healthcare Consulting Corp. and we will provide you with a personalized quote for our services.