The terms closed and open are major players for traumatic fracture diagnosis coding. Brush up on some basics with this focus on ICD-10-CM coding for rib fracture initial encounters.
The ICD-10-CM index provides these entries for rib under the Fracture heading:
Fri, Apr 6, 2018
Coding for drug testing and specimen validity testing was the focus of recently released MLN Matters SE18001. At the end of the MLN article, there’s a link to an OIG report on the topic revealing millions in improper payments.
If CMS and the OIG consider something you code worthy of focus, you really should read up to be sure you understand the policy. And while you’re reading, keep in mind the larger tangle of Correct Coding Initiative (CCI) rules for drug testing codes, including proprietary lab analyses (PLA) codes, to grasp the full picture. Here are …
Wed, Apr 4, 2018
The World Health Organization (WHO) uses World Health Day each April to draw attention to global health concerns. Here’s a quick history of recent World Health Day themes with a coding twist.
2018: The theme this year is “Health for All,” with discussion of paths to universal health coverage (UHC) around the world. It is a big topic that deserves more than a few sentences, but one potentially overlooked area of note is WHO’s statement that “UHC is not only about medical treatment for individuals, but also includes services for whole populations such as public health campaigns,” like “controlling the breeding grounds of mosquitoes that …
Fri, Mar 30, 2018
Not sure whether to report an integumentary or vulvectomy code when your ob-gyn treats a patient for a vulvar lesion? If you select the wrong code, your practice could lose out on the money it rightfully deserves.
Did you know? Vulvectomies involve much more work and therefore have higher RVUs than lesion excisions. For instance, simple, partial vulvectomy code 56620 has 14.96 total facility RVUs (national). Compare that to only 8.47 total facility RVUs for top-dollar excision code 11626 (… excised diameter over 4.0 cm). Meaning, if you report 11626 in place of 56620, you could lose out on $233 of ethical pay.
Keep the pointers below in mind when you report vulvectomy or lesion …
Wed, Mar 28, 2018
There have been some hot topics in recent issues of TCI’s Emergency Department Coding & Reimbursement Alert that are just too good not to share. Here’s a quick summary with links to the articles for you lucky readers with access to the online newsletter or to Emergency Medicine Coder.
Teaching hospital staff got some relief from an update to CMS’s position on medical student participation in E/M service documentation. The way providers must perform encounters hasn’t changed, but the shift allows the teaching physician to “verify in the …
Fri, Mar 23, 2018
One of the most significant changes for family medicine in 2018 is the switch from HCPCS to CPT® for behavioral health integration (BHI) and care management. In this post, we’ll check out new cognitive assessment code 99483, which not only replaced G0505, but also added 160 words to the descriptor!
Here’s the 2017 descriptor for G0505 (Cognition and functional assessment using standardized instruments with development of recorded care plan for the patient with cognitive impairment, history obtained from patient and/or caregiver, in office or …
Thu, Mar 22, 2018
CMS plans to revise and introduce new pricing modifiers for oxygen flow rate. So if you submit claims for oxygen services, make sure you and your billing staff members are aware of these changes effective April 1, 2018. Here’s a heads-up!
Medicare has taken this step as the existing modifiers do not meet the needs of the market. There is a need to provide greater specificity in such modifiers where there are varying prescribed flow rates.
The new HCPCS modifiers you’…
Mon, Mar 19, 2018
The addition of diagnostic bone marrow and biopsy code 38222 in the CPT® 2018 code set simplified coding in some ways (multiple procedures in one code), but there are still questions to be answered about how to handle specific scenarios. In case you missed it, the 2018 Correct Coding Initiative (CCI) manual answered some of those questions. Read on to get those details.
When your documentation shows diagnostic bone marrow aspiration, diagnostic bone marrow biopsy, or both, the CCI manual gives the following instructions on how to code.
Diagnostic bone marrow aspiration alone: Report 38220 (Diagnostic …
Fri, Mar 16, 2018
Curious about the world of chargemasters? These three questions will give you a speedy introduction to this crucial revenue cycle management tool used by hospitals.
A hospital chargemaster, also called a hospital charge description master, lists the billable services and items that a hospital provides to patients. Some of the elements included in the chargemaster may include an internally generated identification number for the line, CPT® and HCPCS codes (including alternatives when payers require different codes) with descriptions, the revenue code associated with the charge, and the facility’s charge.
A sample, simplified scenario may …
Wed, Mar 14, 2018
It’s no secret that healthcare is a major player in the U.S. economy. AMA’s new economic impact report indicates that patient-care physicians are one of the top job creators in the country. According to the report, physicians supported the employment of nearly 12.6 million people and contributed $2.3 trillion to the nation’s economy in 2015.
The report — put together by IQVIA — captures economic data from 2015 pertaining to the country’s 736,873 physicians providing patient care. The report includes both office-based and hospital-based MDs and DOs. The report looked at four key indicators — jobs,
Tue, Apr 10, 2018
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