One question we are asked a lot is "what are the approved manuals for the medical coding CPC exam from AAPC?" The most surprising "non change" is there is no…
Expert Leesa A. Israel will take this 60 minute audio session on Tuesday, August 20, 2013, to help you comprehend the meaning of modifiers and when to use them in…
As U.S. health care providers continue the march toward implementing the ICD-10 — a standardized set of medical diagnoses used by medical professionals across the world — the code set…
Today, in Nature, three letters (1, 2, 3) were published on the role of de novo coding mutations in the development of autism.
Bill all three or get a denial: supply, injection, and illumination. Coding for photodynamic therapy (PDT) involves three key components, which means you should look into multiple CPT® codes to describe your claim appropriately. But this could jeopard...
Modifiers and test results are among the ‘instant denial’ triggers for these codes.
Whether you search under medical oncology, hematology, or hematology/oncology, J0881 and J0885 rank first and third on the lists of the top 10 codes reported to the CMS database (2009). These J-codes for erythropoiesis stimulating agents (ESAs) carry a heavy load of very specific reporting requirements and volatile reimbursement rates. To be sure your claims for these frequently reported codes are as clean and accurate as possible, apply the tips below.
Learn more: These recently available top 10 rankings are listed in a file posted by Frank Cohen, MPA, principal and Senior Analyst for The Frank Cohen Group. Choose the link for “Top 10 procedure codes by frequency for all specialties” at www.frankcohen.com/html/access.html.
Warm Up With Code and ESA Definitions
The HCPCS codes in focus are as follows:
Code J0881 is appropriate to report the supply of Aranesp. Code J0885 applies instead to supply of Epogen or Procrit. Keep in mind that the J codes represent only the supply. You should report the ESA administration separately using 96372 (Therapeutic, prophylactic, or diagnostic injection [specify substance or drug]; subcutaneous or intramuscular) for intramuscular (IM) administration, says Janae Ballard, CPC, CPC-H, CPMA, CEMC, PCS, FCS, coding manager for The Coding Source, based in Los Angeles.
Both codes indicate they are specific to “non-ESRD use.” ESRD is short for end stage renal disease. Consequently, these codes are appropriate when the injection is connected to oncologic use.
What ESAs do: ESAs stimulate bone marrow to produce more red blood cells, according to...
Verify evidence of previous treatments for successful claims.
If you’re coding for a patient’s carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) injection, double check for previous, less invasive CTS treatments before getting too far with your claim. If the physician administers an injection during the patient’s initial visit for CTS, you could be facing a denial. Some payers allow CTS injection therapy only when other treatments have failed. Check out these FAQs to make each CTS coding scenario a snap.
Should the Physician Try Other Treatments Before 20526?
Yes. The FP would likely try less invasive treatments before resorting to CTS injection (20526, Injection, therapeutic [e.g. local anesthetic, corticosteroid], carpal tunnel), confirms Marvel J. Hammer, RN, CPC, CCS-P, PCS, ACS-PM, CHCO, owner of MJH Consulting in Denver. These treatments might include, but are not limited to:
If the patient’s symptoms don’t improve after these attempts, the physician may then proceed with a corticosteroid injection of the carpal tunnel, Hammer says.
Caveat: Check with the payer if you are unsure of its “previous treatment” requirements. Even evidence of previous treatments might not be enough to convince some insurers, says Jacqui Jones, a physician office manager in Klamath Falls, Ore. “We have had a couple of contracted HMOs [health maintenance organizations] impose conservative nonsurgical treatment – even with previous treatment and positive nerve conduction velocities ordered by another physician,” says Jones.
What Diagnoses Support Carpal Tunnel?
Patients that become candidates for CTS injections may present initially with “complaints of progressively worse numbness and tingling (782.0, Disturbance of skin sensation) in their hand and wrist, particularly the thumb, index, and middle finger,” Hammer explains. As the CTS...
Take a hint from a CPT®’s global period when choosing between modifiers 25 or 57
Contrary to popular thinking, modifier 57 does not apply exclusively for consultation codes only. Medicare may have stopped paying for consult codes, but this doesn’t mean you have to stop using modifier 57. Here are two tips on how you can use this modifier to suit your practice’s needs.
Background: Starting January 1, 2010, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) eliminated consult codes from the Medicare fee schedule.
Non-Consult Inpatient Codes Keep Modifier 57 Alive
With CMS eliminated consult codes (99241-99245, 99251- 99255) for Medicare patients, you might have wondered if modifier 57 (Decision for surgery) would remain useful. The answer? You can still use this modifier for a non-consult inpatient E/M code, so long as your documentation supports it. This is because any major procedure includes E/M services the day before and the day of the procedure in the global period, says Barbara J. Cobuzzi, MBA, CPC, CENTC, CPC-H, CPC-P, CPC-I, CHCC, president of CRN Healthcare Solutions, a consulting firm in Tinton Falls, N.J. “The only way you can be paid properly for an E/M performed the day before the major surgery or the day of the surgery is to indicate that it was a decision for surgery (modifier 57), which also indicates to the payer that the major procedure was not a pre-scheduled service,” she explains.
Past: Say the pulmonologist carries out a level four inpatient consult in which she figures out the patient requires thoracoscopy with pleurodesis for his recurring, persistent pleural effusion (511.9). The physician decides to perform thoracoscopy with pleurodesis the day after the consult. In this case, appending modifier 57 to the E/M code (99254, Inpatient consultation for a new or established patient, which requires these 3...
Many new codes abound in final update to proposed ICD-9-CM code set
If you’ve felt that your skin cancer diagnoses could use a bit more specificity, ICD-9 will deliver this October if the proposed list of new, deleted, and revised diagnosis codes becomes final. The list of ICD-9 changes was recently posted to the CMS Website, and includes the final full set of changes that the agency will make to ICD-9 codes. After the new codes take effect on Oct. 1, CMS will only add new ICD- 9 codes on an emergency basis as it prepares to switch over the diagnosis coding system to ICD-10.
Seek Out Skin Cancer Changes
You’ll find a significant expansion to the 173.x (Other malignant neoplasm of skin) categories, including changes to 173.0x (…Skin of lip), 173.1x (Eyelid, including canthus), 173.2x (Skin of ear and external auditory canal), 173.3x (Skin of other and unspecified parts of face), 173.4x (Scalp and skin of neck), 173.5x (Skin of trunk, except scrotum), 173.6x (Skin of upper limb, including shoulder), 173.7x (Skin of lower limb, including hip), 173.8x (Other specified sites of skin), and 173.9x (Skin, site unspecified).
Among these changes, for example, you’ll find the following new codes to delineate various types of skin cancers:
The changes in the other skin cancer categories referenced above follow this pattern, with the fifth digit of “0” referring to an unspecified malignant neoplasm, “1” denoting a basal cell cancer, “2” referring to a squamous cell carcinoma,” and “9”...
Many new codes abound in final update to proposed ICD-9-CM code set.
If you’ve felt that your skin cancer diagnoses could use a bit more specificity, ICD-9 will deliver this October if the proposed list of new, deleted, and revised diagnosis codes becomes final. The list of ICD-9 changes was recently posted to the CMS Website, and includes the final full set of changes that the agency will make to ICD-9 codes. After the new codes take effect on Oct. 1, CMS will only add new ICD- 9 codes on an emergency basis as it prepares to switch over the diagnosis coding system to ICD-10.
Seek Out Skin Cancer Changes
You’ll find a significant expansion to the 173.x (Other malignant neoplasm of skin) categories, including changes to 173.0x (…Skin of lip), 173.1x (Eyelid, including canthus), 173.2x (Skin of ear and external auditory canal), 173.3x (Skin of other and unspecified parts of face), 173.4x (Scalp and skin of neck), 173.5x (Skin of trunk, except scrotum), 173.6x (Skin of upper limb, including shoulder), 173.7x (Skin of lower limb, including hip), 173.8x (Other specified sites of skin), and 173.9x (Skin, site unspecified).
Among these changes, for example, you’ll find the following new codes to delineate various types of skin cancers:
The changes in the other skin cancer categories referenced above follow this pattern, with the fifth digit of “0” referring to an unspecified malignant neoplasm, “1” denoting a basal cell cancer, “2” referring to a squamous cell carcinoma,” and “9” describing another...
Tactics help you recoup deserved pay for 24357-24359.
Tennis elbow claims faults can wreak havoc on your reimbursement for these services. But you can clean up your method if you can spot in the note how the surgeon reached the elbow tendon and whether the tendon was released or repaired. By doing so, you stand to gain your full earned pay for codes 24357, 24358, and 24359, which is $437.27, $514.74, and $647.59, respectively.
Review Structures Treated
When you are confident in your elbow anatomy knowledge, you’ll have a better chance of understanding where the operative note is directing you. The codes are simple and can easily be applied if you are reading correctly. “Coding these procedures became much easier when CPT condensed the codes from the previous five down to the current three,” confirms Heidi Stout, BA, CPC, COSC, PCS, CCS-P, Coder on Call, Inc., Milltown, New Jersey and orthopedic coding division director, The Coding Network, LLC, Beverly Hills, CA. The bones, –humerus above and the radius and ulna below– articulate in a manner to allow 180 degrees of movement that helps you use the upper limb for various functions.
The numerous muscles that originate and insert around the joint allow movement; particularly important is the bundle of extensors including the muscle extensor carpi radialis brevis (ECRB) that originates at the lateral epicondyle which is the lateral prominence of the humerus at the elbow joint. Repeated back movements of the wrist joint, as seen when playing tennis, can cause small micro tears in the tendon of origin and result in inflammation known as lateral epicondylitis or ‘tennis elbow.’ The term is highly deceptive, though; the condition affects non-athletes as well, and is not solely confined to tennis players. As the pathology progresses, the damaged tendon(s) may rupture and...
When two surgeons work together to perform one procedure, each physician’s individual documentation requirements can get jumbled up. Make sure your physician isn’t passing the documentation buck and that he or she knows to follow these four tips when you submit claims with modifier 62.
Tip 1: Each physician should identify the other as a co-surgeon. Also make sure that the other physician is billing with modifier 62. A lot of confusion can arise when physicians from different practices are reporting the same procedure.
You may find yourself in a situation where one physician may report the other physician’s work as that of an assistant surgeon, in which case the claims would not correspond. This means a denial will hit your desk. One surgeon cannot simply indicate the other as the co-surgeon. Both physicians must submit claims for the same procedure, both with modifier 62. To accomplish this all you only need to call with a simple courtesy to the other physician’s billing or coding department.
Tip 2: Each physician should document her own operative notes. When surgeons are acting as “co-surgeons,” it is implied that they are each performing a distinct part of the procedure, which means they can’t “share” the same documentation. Each physician should provide a note detailing what portion of the procedure he or she performed, how much work was involved, and how long the procedure took. Including a brief explanation of the need for co-surgeons will help to avoid denials and reimbursement delays.
Tip 3: Each physician must link the same diagnosis code to the common procedure code. Though this requirement may seem obvious, if two physicians serve as co-surgeons to perform one procedure, the diagnosis code(s) they link to the CPT® code should be the same. Before submitting a claim with modifier 62, someone...
When two surgeons work together to perform one procedure, each physician’s individual documentation requirements can get jumbled up. Make sure your physician isn’t passing the documentation buck and that he or she knows to follow these four tips when you submit claims with modifier 62.
Tip 1: Each physician should identify the other as a co-surgeon. Also make sure that the other physician is billing with modifier 62. A lot of confusion can arise when physicians from different practices are reporting the same procedure.
You may find yourself in a situation where one physician may report the other physician’s work as that of an assistant surgeon, in which case the claims would not correspond. This means a denial will hit your desk. One surgeon cannot simply indicate the other as the co-surgeon. Both physicians must submit claims for the same procedure, both with modifier 62. To accomplish this all you only need to call with a simple courtesy to the other physician’s billing or coding department.
Tip 2: Each physician should document her own operative notes. When surgeons are acting as “co-surgeons,” it is implied that they are each performing a distinct part of the procedure, which means they can’t “share” the same documentation. Each physician should provide a note detailing what portion of the procedure he or she performed, how much work was involved, and how long the procedure took. Including a brief explanation of the need for co-surgeons will help to avoid denials and reimbursement delays.
Tip 3: Each physician must link the same diagnosis code to the common procedure code. Though this requirement may seem obvious, if two physicians serve as co-surgeons to perform one procedure, the diagnosis code(s) they link to the CPT® code should be the same. Before submitting a claim with modifier 62, someone...
Do you ever meet with parents before their baby is even born? In these cases, you might be hesitant to charge for the visits because the patient isn’t present yet—but can you collect anything for the physician’s time? Check out the following 4 options, along with our expert advice before billing to insurance.
1. Consider an Office Visit
Some practices think of meet-and-greets, in which they tell the parents about the way they run their practice, more as an office visit, such as 99201. However, this would need to be billed based on time to the mother’s insurance company and would likely be questioned by the insurance company. For practices that do charge for these services, there’s a diagnosis code you can use: V65.11. ICD-9 guidelines allow you to list the code as a first or additional diagnosis.
2. Ensure You Meet Criteria Before Using 99401-99404
As an alternative to use a problem-oriented office visit code, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) suggests the pediatrician may deem an appropriate counseling or risk factor reduction code. You may report these codes for prenatal counseling “if a family comes to the pediatrician/neonatologist either self-referred or sent by another provider to discuss a risk-reduction intervention (i.e., seeking advice to avoid a future problem or complication),” according to the AAP’s Coding for Pediatrics 2009.
You would report the service under the mother’s insurance, according to the AAP. Make sure you don’t use 99401-99404 if the mother or her fetus has any existing symptoms, an identified problem, or a specific illness. As per CPT®’s Counseling Risk Factor Reduction and Behavior Change Intervention guidelines, “these codes are used to report services for the purpose of promoting health and preventing illness or injury.”
Codes 99401-99404 aren’t necessarily shoo-ins for typical meet and greets. The AAP gives...
Make your physician’s job easier by letting the patient or nurse document the history.
If your physician glosses over a patient’s past, family, and social history (PFSH), you may be missing out on up to $69 per E/M. Accurately counting the number of PFSH items could result in more money for an encounter, because the top-level E/M codes require PFSH elements in addition to an extended history of present illness, and more than 1 system reviewed. Learn these three quick tips to ensure your physician is capturing, and you’re recognizing, every history component the patient mentions.
1. Determine the Level of PFSH
For coding purposes, the history portion of an E/M service requires all three elements — history of present illness (HPI), review of systems (ROS), and a past, family and social history (PFSH). Therefore, the PFSH helps determine patient history level, which has a great effect on the E/M level you can report. If you do not know the PFSH level, you may have to select a lower level of E/M service than might otherwise be warranted. There are three levels of PFSH: none, pertinent, and complete, says Leah Gross, CPC, coding lead at Metro Urology in St. Paul, Minn.
Pertinent: To reach a detailed level of history for the encounter (in addition to an extended HPI and the review of 2-9 systems), you need a pertinent PFSH. According to Medicare’s Documentation Guidelines for E/M Services, you need at least one specific item from any of the three PFSH areas to achieve the pertinent level. When the physician asks only about one history area related to the main problem, this is a pertinent PFSH.
Complete: To reach a comprehensive level of history for the encounter (in addition to an extended HPI and the...
You’ll be able to report anastomosis with some procedures and not others.
If your urologist sees pediatric patients you may occasionally run across some procedures that you’re not used to coding. When your urologist performs a Malone antegrade colonic enema (MACE), a Mitrofanoff procedure, or a Monti procedure, you might be left scratching your head over the proper code choice. Follow this expert guidance to ensure you’re reporting the proper codes for every pediatric surgery your urologist performs.
Differentiate MACE and Mitrofanoff Before Coding
The MACE and Mitrofanoff procedures are similar, as both are used mainly in pediatric patients and involve similar anatomy, which makes coding for them a challenge.
MACE: For the MACE procedure, the physician uses the appendix or other small section of bowel to create an opening attached to the skin (a cutaneous stoma) to be used to irrigate antegrade with a catheter fecal matter from the colon. “The MACE is generally a pediatric procedure used on children, but could also be used on adults, with chronic constipation or fecal incontinence. Usually these diagnoses are found in children who are born with spina bifida or other neurological abnormalities,” explains Janell Glascock, CCS, CPMA, certified coding specialist for the Indiana University Health Physicians, Urology Department in Indianapolis.
For the MACE procedure you will first report 50845 (Cutaneous appendico-vesicostomy), says Christy Shanley, CPC, billing manager for the University of California, Irvine Department of Urology. Append modifier 52 (Reduced services) because the urologist is doing part of an appendicovesicostomy (isolating the appendix but doesn’t remove it from the large bowel). Then, report 44680-51 (Intestinal plication [separate procedure]; multiple procedures) for the plication of the bowel, Shanley says.
Mitrofanoff: “The Mitrofanoff [procedure] can also use the appendix, or other small bowel if the appendix is not available, and attaches...