Here’s what you need to explain in your cover letter....
Even though Medicare no longer accepts consult codes, you can still apply modifier 57.
Question: In our ob-gyn office, we used to apply modifier 57 to inpatient consult codes. Now that Medicare doesn’t accept consult codes, how should we use...
Uncircled vaccines, administrations could cost your practice 10%.
Think increasing payments in 2010 is a fairy tale? Your magic wand is right at your front desk.
“Check-out coding can have a significant financial impact,” reported Norman “Chip” Harbaugh, MD, in...
Have your documentation ready for reporting level P4 and higher.
Physical status modifiers, also referred to as P modifiers, PS modifiers, ASAs or ASA P codes, are an important element of your anesthesia coding. If you don’t use them correctly,...
Your solo dilation coding will get easier come 2011.
With no dedicated code for a balloon sinuplasty, you’re not alone if you’ve wondered how to code endoscopic sinus surgery involving the newer tool.
You, however, can confidently navigate to the...
Sicker patients may not always mean higher MDM.
If your physician bills a lot of high-level office visits, he may be at risk of an audit — which may not be cause for concern — if his documentation justifies his...
If your radiologist performs adjustments during the bariatric surgery’s global period, do this.
Question: Our radiologists perform percutaneous LAP-BAND adjustments. We report S2083 for the service and 77002 for the fluoroscopy. Is this the correct fluoroscopy code?
Connecticut Subscriber
Answer:...
Did you factor in a foreign body removal code?
Question: During an open hernia repair for a reducible umbilical hernia, the surgeon finds a sizeable gallstone embedded in the omentum extending into the preperitoneal fat. The surgeon excises the...
Don’t code a closed fracture treatment code without more information.
Question: Our orthopedist saw a patient in the emergency department for a gunshot wound and diagnosed a metacarpal fracture. He irrigated the site and removed a foreign body. Can we...
If you’ve been holding study claims, the time to send them in is here.
Correct Coding Initiative (CCI) version 16.1 has the news you’ve been waiting for.
The latest version, effective April 1, deletes 142 edit pairs, Frank D. Cohen,...
Keep signature, modifier 59, and ‘Incident To’ guidelines front and center.
If you’ve been worrying that the oncologist’s illegible signature on an order is going to come back to haunt your practice in an audit, CMS has offered
answers...
Plus: CMS reps cite current Medicare law and advise that practices should report just one inpatient care code per patient, per day.
Although CMS has eliminated payment for consult codes, it will continue to honor split/shared visits — as long...
6 tips show you the do’s and don’ts of using 88387 and +88388.
When your pathologist performs sterile macroscopic dissection to prep tissue for molecular diagnostics tests, you didn’t have a way to capture the service — until now. Take...
This quick quiz will show you where you fall.
Want to stay polished on your coding and billing skills to ensure stellar reimbursement and compliance? Give this quiz a whirl, and then turn to page 21 for the answers —...
But because legislators missed the cutoff by one day, some claims were processed using a lower rate.Although the government appeared poised to take a big bite out of your next Part B payments, you have another month before...
Question: Our hospital billing and medical departments say that diagnoses we add to a claim for reimbursement must have a physician endorsement. We’ve researched our Local Coverage Determination (L26884) from National Government Services, the Ingenix Coding & Payment Guide for...