Month: June 2020

Health System Financial Stability After COVID-19

Efficiency Key to Health System Financial Stability After COVID-19

As Eisenhower Health reopens following the peak of COVID-19, leaders are leaning on technology and strategies that improve efficiency to ensure health system financial stability during the recession. When COVID-19 really hit the Coachella Valley area of California in mid-March, volumes dropped by as much as 60 percent at Eisenhower Health. For a health system […]
ICD-10-CM Codes Spark Great Interest

ICD-10-CM Codes Spark Great Interest

Over the past few months, the folks at ICD10monitor have seen an increase in website searches regarding two specific ICD-10-CM codes: U07.1 (COVID-19) and F32.9 (Major depressive disorder, unspecified). Some say that this is a sign of the times, and that may be absolutely true, considering what has gone on in the past four months […]
6 Strategies To Re-Invent The ASC Revenue Cycle

6 Strategies To Re-Invent The ASC Revenue Cycle

Ambulatory surgery centers have long faced challenges in collecting reimbursement, and that became increasingly difficult as patients shouldered more financial responsibility for their care. However, those challenges have intensified during the COVID-19 pandemic and have resulted in an increased need for centers to accelerate revenue collection due to temporary income loss from suspended procedures. During […]
COVID-19 Specimen Collection and Testing

COVID-19 Specimen Collection and Testing

How to code Medicare Part B claims for reimbursement. These past few months have been a whirlwind for everyone, but it’s fair to say medical coders have been hit with a category 5 hurricane. New codes and revised guidelines have been whirring about, making our heads spin. And now we have another new CPT® code […]
Future of Telehealth

Telehealth is the Future- and the Future has Arrived

For several years, we’ve seen Medicare and the American Medical Association’s Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) manual slowly approach the age of telehealth. Despite a lot of discussion and many headlines during each of the past few years, the codes and coverage embracing the modern age of medicine have lagged far behind the technology. This isn’t […]
Diagnosis Coding for COVID-19

Diagnosis Coding for COVID-19: Better to be Lucky Than Good

  Stakeholders need to work collaboratively to ensure that diagnostic information is complete and accurate. The COVID-19 pandemic has created many overwhelming and heartbreaking medical challenges. In theory, the easiest task is accurate diagnosis coding for suspected exposure, confirmed and presumed cases, and possible disease. The new ICD-10-CM codes are few and clearly defined.  However, […]
Labs Welcome CMS Rate for Coronavirus Antibody Testing

Labs Welcome CMS Rate for Coronavirus Antibody Testing

CMS set the reimbursement rate for Medicare Administrative Contractors covering the main type of coronavirus antibody test at approximately $42, per an update Tuesday. That rate exceeds investment firm William Blair’s $25 estimate for the category of tests, boding well for future reimbursement policy for antigen testing, analysts noted. Last month, the agency doubled its reimbursement for high-throughput molecular […]