Red Alert, Cardiology Coders: Expect EP Study + Ablation Denials Until April 1

CMS won’t fix CCI blunder until version 16.1, to be released in the spring. If your heart skipped a beat when you saw that January’s Correct Coding Initiative (CCI) edits bundled catheter ablations with electrophysiology (EP) studies, you weren’t alone. Good news: CMS has decided to delete the edits retroactively because their addition was a mistake, according [...] Related articles:

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OIG Hit List: Perfect Your 38220, 38221, and G0364 Usage

Don’t sweat reporting 38220-59 if you meet these Medicare-approved conditions. If your oncologist takes both a bone marrow biopsy and a bone marrow aspiration, whether you’ll see Medicare reimbursement depends on the two guidelines below. But watch out: With OIG scrutiny and a HCPCS twist, these guidelines will put your coding savvy to the test. Append 59 [...] Related articles:

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Surgery Coding Challenge: Master Microsurgery Units With This Advice

Check your EOB to make sure payers don’t apply a multiple-procedure reduction to +69990. Question: When my ENT uses a microscope during a procedure, what guidelines can I use for choosing between 92504 and +69990? Is there a rule governing how many times you can report the add-on code 69990? Answer… You can use 92504 (Binocular microscopy [separate [...] Related articles:

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Ob-Gyn CCI 16.0: Hysterectomy Coding

Here’s where you can bypass the edits with modifier 59. The Correct Coding Initiative (CCI) version 16.0 didn’t overlook the hysterectomy, vaginal graft, and colpopexy codes — nor should you. To make sense of the deletions, break these additions into mutually exclusive and non-mutually exclusive. Note: In all these cases — except those involving the anesthetic injection [...] Related articles:

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Cataract Surgery Coding Skill Builder

Determine ‘planned or unplanned’ before separately coding vitrectomy. With several possible surgical treatments for cataract procedures, which you probably code more often than any other surgery, there’s a lot of room for error – with over $890 at stake for complex cataract procedures in 2009. Use these tricky scenarios as a guide through some of the most [...] Related articles:

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Pathology Billing: Calculate How MUE/CCI Restricts Your Outside Consult Pay

Don’t bank on accepted 88321-88323 unit of service. Your pathologist consults with an outside lab on slides taken from a 2006 lumpectomy and a 2009 lymph node fine needle aspiration (FNA). That’s 88321 x 2 — right? Maybe. Your payer determines the answer to that question. The problem: “Although the American Medical Association (AMA) says the unit of service for [...] Related articles:

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Radiology Coding Challenge: Why is Medicare Denying a 38792, 78195 Claim

Tip: Discover true meaning of 38792 note Question: The physician performed a sentinel node injection with lymphoscintigraphy. A note with 38792 states to report 78195 for imaging. So why did Medicare deny a claim that included both codes? Answer: You should report 78195 (Lymphatic and lymph nodes imaging) for this service and leave 38792 (Injection procedure; for [...] Related articles:

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Eye Surgery Coding Challenge: Denials for 15823 & 67904

Question: I started receiving denials for 15823 and 67904. To report this combo, should I use a modifier? Answer: If the ophthalmologist performs the blepharoplasty (bleph) with excessive weight (15823, Blepharoplasty, upper eyelid; with excessive skin weighting down lid) on one eye and the blepharoptosis (ptosis) repair (67904, Repair of blepharoptosis; [tarso] levator resection or advancement, [...] Related articles:

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