Compliance

Understanding and maintaining compliance with laws and regulations are necessary for the practice of hospital medicine. The resources below focus on many of the critical policies that impact hospital medicine and help hospitalists navigate the ever-growing and changing regulatory complexities of modern healthcare.

SHM’s Practice Management department works together with the Government Relations team to ensure hospitalist perspectives and experiences are represented and included in federal policy decisions. See more about SHM’s current advocacy efforts. 

Coding, clinical documentation and reimbursement are all foundational concepts necessary for any hospital medicine practice. Hospitalists cannot always bill for everything they do, but they can document and code completely and accurately to ensure their work is appropriately reimbursed.

Clinical Documentation Pearls for Hospitalists

A small printable guide to help hospitalists document with consistency and clarity.

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On April 3, 2017, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) assigned a specialty code, “C6” for providers that identify themselves as hospitalists. In a monumental step, hospitalists can now differentiate and properly benchmark their performance against other specialties, such as internal medicine and family medicine. Using this specialty code allows for more opportunities to be rewarded while simultaneously minimizing unnecessary penalties.

“This major milestone for hospital medicine demonstrates the continued growth and impact of the specialty.”
– Dea Robinson, FACMPE, Practice Management Committee Member

Due to the persistent efforts of SHM’s Board of Directors, staff and Public Policy Committee, a formal application proposing the need for a hospitalist specialty code – a code that would never have even been considered – was approved. Hospital medicine is the first medical specialty to be granted a specialty code without also having a board certification.

A provider can designate their specialty as “hospitalist” in Medicare’s provider enrollment system (Provider Enrollment, Chain and Ownership System; PECOS). Hospitalists may need to work with their credentialing team and administrators to enact this change for their Medicare enrollment.