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...
Tip: Bill for the exact units given per patient.
Question: My neurologist scheduled two patients back-to-back for botulinum type B injections. But he didn’t use all of the Botox and we disposed of it. Do I need to report the...
Watch frequency and provide documentation to rationalize extra pay.
Applying modifier 22 (Increased procedural services) can help increase reimbursement if your neurosurgeon documents a greater-than-usual effort during a surgical service. To ensure your claims’ success, surgeons and coders must also...
Medicare won’t pay 69210 alone, so here’s how to unlock payment.
Impacted cerumen removal is a fairly straightforward procedure, but billing for the procedure is not always so simple.
The problem: Most payers, including Medicare,consider 69210 (Removal impacted cerumen [separate...
Hint: Gathering upfront pay and watching E/Ms make a difference.
Children need physicals to participate in their favorite sports year round, but the demand can grow with warm weather approaching. Ideally, the need for sports physicals should provide the opportunity...