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Audit discussions often focus on the fear of upcoding and having to hope that repaying the extra amount is the worst of the consequences. But downcoding is another problem area affecting your payments and more. Here’s why you should never purposely downcode your services. Start With a CERT Story Wondering about the $325 million in […]
Continue reading...Thursday, January 24, 2019
The 2018 CERT report estimates 58 percent of Medicare improper payments were caused by insufficient documentation (and this is an ongoing trend). More than half is nothing to sneeze at, especially when you consider that those documentation problems could lead to having to repay Medicare or having to spend time working on underpayments. Here’s a […]
Continue reading...Monday, April 16, 2018
We’ve talked about CERT 2017 report results before in this blog, but that’s mostly been Part B. Podiatry coders need to be thinking about DMEPOS, too. And based on the 70.5 percent error rate estimated for podiatry under DMEPOS, practices need to put that on their priority lists. Review the CERT Report Stats The “2017 […]
Continue reading...Wednesday, March 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. 1. Streamline With This Change to […]
Continue reading...Monday, February 5, 2018
A 90.5 percent accuracy rate for Medicare Fee-for-Service (FFS) payments may not sound too bad, but consider that the 9.5 percent improper payment rate adds up to $36.2 billion! That’s the news from the 2017 Medicare Fee-for-Service Supplemental Improper Payment Data report based on Comprehensive Error Rate Testing (CERT). Smart move: Reviewing CERT results can […]
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Monday, April 8, 2019
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