Upcoming Change to Provider Bulletin Format Empire Medicare Services currently publishes a Part A provider bulletin (Medicare News Update) and a Part B provider bulletin (Medicare News Brief). Each contains only the articles that are applicable to the provider audience they are designed for, but much of the information in the A and B bulletins overlaps. To reduce this duplication, beginning with the June 2006 bulletin, Empire will publish one monthly combined bulletin that will include all articles that are provided by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services for publication. This includes:
If, for example, a Medlearn Matters article is applicable for Part B only, it will be included in the combined bulletin, and an indicator will be added, both in the table of contents and on the article itself, that denotes Part B only. Any articles prepared by Empire Medicare Services staff, such as local provider education articles and local coverage determination (LCD) updates, will be included in a separate supplement. There will be a Part A supplement and a Part B supplement published each month. The combined bulletin and each supplement will be posted on our Web site, and providers who have paid subscriptions to receive hardcopy bulletins will receive both the combined bulletin and the appropriate supplement each month. The cost for the hardcopy subscriptions will not change as a result of this initiative. |
