Clarifications make E/M changes easier to implement

Refinements continue for the evaluation and management (E/M) office-visit and outpatient documentation and coding reforms that took effect this year, and these include technical corrections updates to the Current Procedural…

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Is the doctor in? Improve nursing homes with one easy stroke

Many nursing home COVID-19 patients would have benefited from daily, reimbursed-for physician visits in their skilled nursing facilities, but they were not entitled to them.  With an epic crisis still…

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5 Use Cases for AI in Behavioral Health Practices

With dwindling provider availability and a growing patient population, the healthcare industry is increasingly turning to technological advancements to improve patient outcomes. During the pandemic, the industry was forced to…

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Top Challenges, Opportunities of Medical Coding and Billing

By April of last year, seemingly every news station in American was featuring the heroic efforts of physicians, nurses, and other clinicians fighting COVID-19. These providers transformed healthcare, implementing telehealth…

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A Novel Approach to Defending Technical Denials

Providers should be aware of these emerging strategies for defending against audits. For years, providers have been plagued with defending claims for medically necessary services that have been denied due…

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Integrating COVID-19 into Coding and Clinical Documentation Integrity

There are certain key elements of consideration during CDI review of COVID-19 patients.  Understanding how to clinically validate sepsis and differentiate between sepsis and septicemia is not easy, and requires…

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Skilled Nursing Facility Staffing Impacted by New Payment Rules

Skilled nursing facility (SNF) staffing levels across several provider types have fallen since Medicare implemented new payment rules meant to drive value over volume of services, according to a new…

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Payer Split-Bill Requirement: Separate Claims to Avoid Edit

Pay attention to dates associated with the new COVID--19 codes, Z20.822 and Z20.828, to avoid billing errors.  In December 2020, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced six…

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Two Common Knee Ligament Injuries and Their ICD-10 Codes

Knee ligaments connect the bones and cartilage, and hold and support the knee joint. Any mild tear in ligaments may severely limit the movement of the knees. Most commonly occurring…

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Medical Coding Guidelines for COVID-19 Treatment and Vaccinations

With COVID-19 vaccinations now being administered across the United States, we have compiled this list of medical code sets to account for the treatment and vaccinations for the novel Coronavirus.…

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CMS Issues Final Rule on MA, Part D

Estimated savings are $75 million over a decade. Federal officials recently announced a series of changes to the Medicare Advantage (MA) and Part D prescription drug programs they hope will…

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