We have had several calls recently from our clients who have been sent fee reduction requests from third party administrators and insurance companies. We can only guess the reason our clients are suddenly receiving these requests is that they get nowhere when contacting our company. If you receive one of these requests please forward it to your Systems Design NW Account Manager. Please do not sign these agreements. By signing them you are agreeing to accept an unnecessary rate reduction and could conceivably be gifting public funds. If you have any questions on this issue please do not hesitate to contact our office.

One of the purposes of this newsletter is to keep you informed of issues regarding Medicare that affect your department.

Medicare has recently begun sending refund requests and initiating recoupments on claims processed in 2002 and 2003. The issue at hand involves patients whose transports overlapped their Medicare Part A hospital stays.

Briefly, Medicare is comprised of two types of coverage; Part A and Part B. Part A is the piece of Medicare that covers hospital stays only and is free to the beneficiary. Part B is the piece of Medicare which the beneficiary pays for and it covers all the ancillary services a patient might get such a physician visits, x- rays and ambulance services. When a patient is under a Part A hospital stay and is transported without being discharged the hospital is responsible for their bill. In auditing these claims, Medicare looked at the patient's discharge date and if the transport was ON or before they requested a refund of those monies. The flaw in their logic is the assumption that there is never a situation when you would be transporting a patient on the same day they were discharged from the hospital. Although it may not happen too often, when it does, the patient's Medicare Part B is responsible for the bill.

We will of course be appealing these denials. However, because of how old these transports are we may need to contact your office for the MIRs. Rest assured we will do our best to minimize the inconvenience to your administrative staff. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact your Account Manager.

It's here (well almost)! The guide for state auditors we have been collaborating on with the state auditors office is all but complete. Please watch our website for audit preparation recommendations based on this soon to be published guide. Once again, our many thanks to Mark Rapoza and Linda Mastin, of the Washington State Auditor's office, for allowing us to participate in this project.

Congratulations are in order for Cindy Tomeo who has been promoted to Assistant Billing Service Supervisor. While continueing in her current role as a Account Manager, Cindy will take on additional responsibilty in the management of the EMS Billing department. She will work very closely with Lisa Rogalsky, Billing Services Supervisor to ensure the excellant level of service you have come to expect from Systems Design NW. Congratulations Cindy!

Juls Obermiller has also been promoted, although her promotion moves her out of the EMS Billing Department and into the Software Development Department. Juls will work with our development team as they put the finishing touches on our brand new billing software. With her extensive background in our billing department as well as many years working in physician's offices, she brings a tremendous amount of expertise to her new role. Congratulations Juls!

The Mobility Project is a non-profit humanitarian organization that collects, refurbishes and distributes used wheelchairs to people in foreign countries, such as Mexico, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Pakistan,Vietnam and Russia. If you are aware of anyone with an unneeded wheelchair (or walker, crutches or canes) we encourage you to get in contact with Project Mobility. Another way to help is to pick up donations in your area and store them until Project Mobility can arrange to have them brought to their office on Bremerton. After seeing a presentation of this organization, and the dedication of it's members, I am honored to be able to pass this information on to you.

Paying in advance

A motorist, driving by a Texas ranch, hit and killed a calf that was crossing the road. The driver went to the owner of the calf and explained what had happened. He then asked what the animal was worth.

"Oh, about $200 today," said the rancher. "But in six years it would have been worth $900. So $900 is what I'm out."

The motorist sat down and wrote out a check and handed it to the farmer.

"Here," he said, "is the check for $900. It's postdated six years from now."

Although we always welcome your phone calls, there are times you may wish to contact us via e-mail.

Gina Behrens	GinaB@SystemsDesignNW.com
Shelley Brewington	ShelleyB@SystemsDesignNW.com
Lori Christenbury	LoriC@SystemsDesignNW.com
Cris Connors	CrisC@SystemsDesignNW.com
Judy Dunn	JudyD@SystemsDesignNW.com
Tammy Flanagan	TammyF@SystemsDesignNW.com
Karen Guay	KarenG@SystemsDesignNW.com
Laurel Hoch	LaurelH@SystemsDesignNW.com
Kim Mayes	KimM@SystemsDesignNW.com
Lois Pierce	LoisP@SystemsDesignNW.com
Lisa Rogalsky	LisaR@SystemsDesignNW.com
Sue Schmitt	SueS@SystemsDesignNW.com
Juls Smith	JulsS@SystemsDesignNW.com
Cindy Tomeo	CindyT@SystemsDesignNW.com
Susan Wytko	SusanW@SystemsDesignNW.com
Roger Zegers	RogerZ@SystemsDesignNW.com