Lamar Alexander Calls Restoration of West Tennessee Doctor’s Medicare Billing Privileges ‘Good News for the People of McKenzie and Dr. Merrick’

Senator Lamar Alexander called the decision by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to restore the medicare billing privileges for Dr. Bryan Merrick “good news for the people of McKenzie and Dr. Merrick” in a statement given to The Tennessee Star on Tuesday. Earlier this month, Alexander called on Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) to hold hearings in the Senate Finance Commmittee he chairs on the Obama-era regulation that was used to revoke Dr. Merrick’s Medicare privileges in March. “This is good news for the people of McKenzie and Dr. Merrick, and I am glad that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has resolved this situation. I especially appreciate the hard work of Representative David Kustoff to solve this problem — his efforts to fix this problem were very important to all of us,” Alexander said in the statement. “I’m happy to hear that CMS has decided to do the right thing and allow Dr. Merrick to return his attention to his patients and the people of McKenzie,” former Congressional candidate Dr. George Flinn told The Star. Flinn was one of many West Tennessee community leaders he advocated on behalf of Dr. Merrick after his Medicare privileges were…

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Former GOP Congressional Candidate Dr. George Flinn: ‘Glad to Play a Small Role’ in Restoration of Medicare Billing Privileges to West Tennessee Doctor

Former Republican Congressional candidate Dr. George Flinn, who wrote President Trump asking him to instruct the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) to amend the Obama-era regulation that were used against a beloved West Tennessee family physician, released a statement on Tuesday that he was “glad to play a small role in the restoration of Medicare billing privileges to Dr. Bryan Merrick, the family physician based in McKenzie, Tennessee: Congratulations to Dr. Merrick, his staff and the city of McKenzie. Ensuring that Dr. Merrick is able to continue serving his patients is an absolute victory, especially in a time when the patient-doctor relationship is dissolving due to government overreach and over regulation. Any help that was provided in writing a letter to President Trump, I was more than happy to do. I’m glad I was able to play a small role in doing the right thing and making sure patients continue to have access to Dr. Merrick. “Federal officials have restored Medicare billing privileges to Dr. Bryan Merrick, whose McKenzie Medical Center is located in the small West Tennessee city of McKenzie,” The Tennessee Star reported on Tuesday: The Tennessee Star led the way in reporting on the story of…

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Federal Officials Restore Medicare Billing Privileges to Dr. Bryan Merrick in West Tennessee

Federal officials have restored Medicare billing privileges to Dr. Bryan Merrick, whose McKenzie Medical Center is located in the small West Tennessee city of McKenzie. The Tennessee Star led the way in reporting on the story of the well respected West Tennessee family practice doctor whose Medicare billing privileges were revoked in March under an Obama-era regulation over a reported $670 in billing errors. “Dr. Bryan Merrick has received word from federal officials that they are reversing an earlier decision to block Dr. Merrick from serving Medicare patients,” according to a statement released by the Office of Attorney Roy Herron on Tuesday, which can be read here: Dr. Merrick’s attorney, former state senator Roy Herron, was called on Monday by two of the several officials that Dr. Merrick and Herron had met with last Thursday in Baltimore. On the call the officials acknowledged to Herron how easily billing for the wrong one of two identically named persons could happen. The officials asked questions about actions taken by the McKenzie Medical Center to try to minimize clerical errors. After Herron explained those numerous preventive actions, the officials and Herron exchanged multiple emails. Late Monday, the officials confirmed that the Medicate revocation definitely would…

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Former GOP Congressional Candidate Dr. George Flinn Asks President Trump to Amend Abusive Obama-Era Medicare Billing Regulation

Dr. George Flinn, who narrowly lost the 2016 Republican primary in Tennessee’s 8th Congressional District to Rep. David Kustoff (R-TN-08), has asked President Trump to amend an abusive Obama-era Medicare billing regulation that has put the medical practice of a beloved West Tennessee doctor on life support. “I am asking you to direct Seema Verma, the director of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), to amend § 424.535(a)(8), an Obama-era rule which has crushed doctors across the country. This rule is a prime example of government overreach and overregulation, which I know you are working diligently to correct,” Flinn wrote in a letter to the president on Thursday. “The current rule, particularly section (ii), is being interpreted in a way that punishes doctors for minor errors without warning and without consideration. Specifically, this rule is being interpreted in a way that does not allow healthcare providers to fix minor errors before disciplinary action is taken. These minor errors in clerical processes can even cost some communities access to quality healthcare,” Flinn continued, adding: A possible example of this rule being misapplied concerns a small town doctor named Dr. Bryan Merrick. Dr. Merrick, a physician in McKenzie, a small West…

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Lamar Alexander Asks Orrin Hatch to Hold Senate Hearings on Revoking Obama-Era Regulation Used by CMS Bureaucrats to Victimize West Tennessee Doctor

Over the weekend, Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN) told Mayor Jill Holland of McKenzie, Tennessee that he will encourage Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) to conduct hearings at the Senate Finance Committee he chairs on whether an Obama-era regulation that is hitting West Tennesssee’s Dr. Bryan Merrick should be revoked, along with other corrections. A spokesperson for the senator confirmed to The Tennessee Star that Alexander will ask Hatch to hold those hearings. Alexander chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, which he says does not have jurisdiction over the CMS regulation. Senator Hatch chairs the Senate Finance Committee, which does have jurisdiction over the CMS regulation. Surprising as that may seem, official Senate rules confirm that the Senate Finance Committee has jurisdiction over all health programs based on federal taxes, which includes Medicare and Medicaid. Senator Paul Toomey (R-PA) chairs the Health Care Subcommittee of the Senate Finance Committee, the most likely place for such hearings to be held. On Friday, Mayor Jill Holland of McKenzie sent a letter to Senator Alexander asking him to hold hearings of the Senate HELP committee he chairs for the purpose of revoking the CMS regulation, as The Star reported: Writing “on behalf of the citizens…

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Mayor Asks Lamar Alexander to Hold Senate Hearings to Revoke Obama-Era Regulation That Permits CMS Abuse of Medicare Billing Cases

The mayor of McKenzie, Tennessee asked Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN) to hold Senate hearings on the abuse of Medicare billing revocations by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services [CMS] in a letter sent on Wednesday. Writing “on behalf of the citizens of Northwest Tennessee,” Mayor Jill Holland asked Alexander, “as Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee [to] schedule, at the earliest opportunity, a hearing of the appropriate subcommittee to consider the revocation or modification of a particularly egregious Obama-Era regulation promulgated by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in December, 2014, “Medicare Program; Requirements for the Medicare Incentive Reward Program and Provider Enrollment; Final Rule.” “This regulation, and its abusive implementation by CMS, is now jeopardizing the health care of hundreds of eventually thousands of citizens in and around McKenzie, Tennessee, our city of 5,000 residents in Carroll, Henry, and Weakley counties,” Holland wrote. Holland then cites the case of Dr. Bryan Merrick, a beloved local family doctor who has practiced medicine in McKenzie for more than thirty years with an unblemished reputation. Merrick is the West Tennessee doctor who “lost his Medicare reimbursement privileges over $670 in billing errors, and the consequences…

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Congressman Kustoff Refuses to Provide Meaningful Help to Beloved West Tennessee Family Doctor Cut Off Medicare By Washington Bureaucrats

Rep. David Kustoff (R-TN-08) met on Tuesday with Dr. Bryan Merrick, co-owner of McKenzie Medical Center, whose Medicare privileges were abruptly revoked by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services over clerical billing errors totaling $670, McKenzie Mayor Jill Holland, Huntingdon Mayor Dale Kelley, McLemoresville Mayor Phil Williams, Carroll County Mayor Kenny McBride, and Bethel University President Walter Butler, all of whom were attempting to secure his help in stopping this egregious abuse of individual rights by an overreaching federal government health care bureaucracy. Kustoff basically punted in response, offering to undertake nothing more than  a purely symbolic effort to “expedite” the lengthy administrative law judge offering. Meanwhile, Dr. Merrick’s patients and employees, as well as Dr. Merrick and McKenzie Medical Center, will suffer devastating consequences, since Medicare payments, which comprise almost half of his practice, are now completely cut off. McKenzie, Tennessee is located in Tennessee’s Eighth Congressional District, which Kustoff represents. In a press released provided to The Tennessee Star by friends of Dr. Merrick, McKenzie, Mayor Jill Holland, speaking for  all those attending the meeting with Kustoff on Dr. Merrick’s behalf “said that she and the others would not be there if they thought Dr. Merrick had done anything…

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Senate Candidate Andy Ogles Blasts ‘Deep State’ Health Care Bureaucracy for Shutting Off Tennessee Family Doctor Over $670 Billing Error

U.S. Senate candidate Andy Ogles blasted the “deep state” health care bureaucracy for revoking the Medicare privileges of Dr. Bryan Merrick, a family doctor with a practice that serves rural McKenzie, Tennessee and the surrounding communities, over a $670 billing error on Friday. “Establishment Republicans have failed to repeal and replace Obamacare, despite a constant stream of promises to do so. But while they lack the will to fix our healthcare system they are willing to unleash the full force of the U.S. government to shut down the medical practice of a country doctor who is actually delivering lifesaving care to the elderly in his community,” the conservative Republican U.S. Senate candidate said. “If they can shut down Dr. Merrick over $670 in clerical billing errors over nearly two years, then every bureaucrat at Health and Human Services and the Veterans Administration should be in jail for the epidemic of waste, fraud and abuse they have overseen and enabled for the last few decades.” Ogles, the former head of the Tennessee chapter of Americans for Prosperity, was the first candidate to announce for the Republican nomination for the U. S. Senate seat currently held by Senator Bob Corker (R-TN). Ogles…

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Tennessee Doctor Loses Medicare Reimbursement Privileges Over $670 in Billing Errors

A West Tennessee doctor has lost his Medicare reimbursement privileges over $670 in billing errors, and the consequences are devastating for his practice and the rural community he serves. “After an unblemished 31-year career in medicine a local doctor is faced with accusations of Medicare billing fraud. On April 16, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) accused Dr. Bryan Merrick of 30 counts of wrongful Medicare billings over the course of 20 months,” the McKenzie Banner, located in rural Carroll County, reported last week: During the 20 month period in question, Dr. Merrick’s office filed approximately 30,000 Medicare claims for patients. The 30 claims account for less than one tenth of 1% of all billings. In other words, 99.9% of the 30,000 billings were filed correctly and in accordance with CMS guidelines. The estimated value of the wrongful billings is $670, which was never paid to Dr. Merrick or McKenzie Medical Center (MMC). All 30 counts are the result of clerical errors made by others, not Dr. Merrick directly. The penalty of these infractions is suspending Dr. Merrick’s Medicare billing privileges for at least three years. Meaning, he has a medical license and can see patients but no…

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