Issue link: https://viewer.e-digitaledition.com/i/1312111
RESEARCHERS: Risk-Takers Needed to Fuel R&D BY THOMAS CROCKER INDIVIDUALS WHO ARE INCLINED TO TAKE RISKS ARE MORE LIKELY TO MAKE DECISIONS THAT LE AD TO INNOVATION, A KE Y FACTOR THAT COMPANIES SHOULD CONSIDER A S THE Y SEEK TO JUMPSTART RESE ARCH AND DE VELOPMENT — AND ECONOMIC GROW TH — IN THE WAKE OF THE COVID-19 VIRUS. IN THE PHARMACEUTICAL a nd biotechnolog y industries, R&D spending is up, but compa nies a re producing fewer new dr ugs a nd treatments. That 's due, in pa r t, to risk aversion a mong R &D decision-ma kers, according to the authors of a Universit y of Ca lifor nia Sa n Diego-led st udy published i n t he Nat iona l Bu reau of Econom ic R esea rch Work i n g Papers Series. To understa nd how risk tolera nce a f fects the pursuit of innovation, the resea rchers desig ned experiments that asked g raduate-level students at UC Sa n Diego's R ady School of Ma na gement to i nvest i n hy pot hetica l project s. Despite f ina ncia l incentives to suppor t riskier ventures, a majority of pa r ticipa nts consistently favored more conser vative options, rejecting the notion that g reat risk ca n bring g reat rewa rd. The resea rchers cla ssif ied on ly 12% of pa r ticipa nts a s r i sk-lov i n g , but t hose people were mos t l i kely t o m a ke innovation-friend ly decisions. Identif y ing indiv idua ls who a re comfor table ta king risks a nd ta sking them with leading R &D ef for t s is key to t he pu rsuit of new discover ies a nd rev ita lizing the economy, according to the resea rchers. n 059990062_FN1_EconomicProspects.indd 1 7/2/20 3:51 PM CODING FOR VIRTUAL VISITS BY THOMAS CROCKER NE W CMS RULES AND WAIVERS E XPANDING THE USE OF TELEMEDICINE IN RESPONSE TO THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC HAVE LEF T PROVIDERS WITH QUESTIONS ABOUT CODING AND BILLING. IN A COLUMN for Medscape.com, medical cod- ing and compliance expert Betsy Nicoletti, MS, noted how to choose the correct level of service for a prima r y ca re telemedicine visit. She wrote that, according to new, emergency CMS rules for billing evaluation and management (E/M) services performed via telemedicine, "a practitioner could use total time or medical decision-making alone to select the level of E/M services." If a provider bases the selection on time, counseling no longer has to comprise the majority of the appointment. Nicoletti also explained the difference between HCPCS code G2012 and CPT code 99441 in response to a question from an OB-GYN office. Code G2012, she explained, is for a 5–10 minute phone or video visit for E/M services rendered to an established patient. These services cannot be related to E/M services provided during the previous seven days and cannot lead to an E/M service within the next 24 hours. Most insurers aren't required to use or accept G2012. Code 99441 carries the same stipulations as G2012, but is only for phone-based E/M services. In March, CMS updated its rules so that 99441 is now an active code rather than a non-covered code and is not considered a telemedicine code, according to Nicoletti. n M D N E W S . C O M /// M D N E W S C E N T R A l P E N N S y lvA N I A ■ 2 0 21 0 5