Compliance Trends: Keep These 4 Trouble Spots On Your Radar Screen for 2011 and Beyond

Why This Topic Matters

The piece helps readers identify where regulators and auditors were focusing their attention so organizations could prioritize compliance review and policy monitoring. It is especially relevant for teams responsible for documentation integrity, billing oversight, and risk management.

Article Sections

1. Physician electronic medical record documentation

   Discusses compliance concerns tied to electronic documentation practices and government review of medical records. The section focuses on documentation integrity as a regulatory issue.

2. E/M coding during the global surgical period

   Covers oversight concerns related to evaluation and management billing around surgical episodes and the broader global period framework. It highlights why this topic remained under scrutiny.

3. Unknowns posed by ACOs

   Reviews compliance uncertainty surrounding accountable care organizations and the legal and regulatory questions they raised. The section references payment arrangements, oversight agencies, and implementation timing.

4. A rocky road for doctors not in the know

   Addresses general provider compliance risk when Medicare rules, billing requirements, or overpayment obligations are not well understood. It also touches on broader fraud-and-abuse and false claims concerns.