Coordination and Maintenance committee meeting announces COVID 19 code effective April 1, 2020. The Coordination and Maintenance Committee Meeting announced that the COVID-19 code that was originally scheduled to become effective October 1, 2020 will now be effective April 1, 2020. The code that will be effective is U07.1. The effective date was changed […]
The pandemic crisis is disrupting the revenue cycle, including the revenue ramifications of cancelling elective procedures. The global COVID-19 pandemic has sent the entire world into turmoil, including negatively affecting the U.S. economy, causing a ripple effect down to healthcare organization revenue cycles. Many elements of this crisis are already changing the revenue cycle, from […]
The introduction of 2019-nCoV Coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2/2019-nCoV (COVID-19) in the United States has produced an influx of patients into the health care system. While knowing how to diagnose and treat these patients is vital, being able to appropriately capture this information for data tracking and payment also is important. The National Center for Healthcare Statistics has […]
The 2019-2020 influenza season is winding down, so now is a good time to start preparing for the 2020-2021 influenza season. Let’s start with a new CPT® code for the flu vaccine. Flu Activity Report The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that viral activity is decreasing in the United States. According to […]
CMS has released several fact sheets in recent weeks on billing and coding to provide guidance to healthcare organizations testing and treating patients for COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. Seven things to know: CMS developed Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System code U0001 to allow laboratories and healthcare providers to bill for using the CDC’s […]
On Dec. 31, 2019, as many of us here in the U.S. were celebrating New Year’s Eve, a pandemic quietly began in the Chinese province of Hubei. First identified in Wuhan, the provincial capital, coronavirus (more accurately known as COVID-19 or 2019-nCoV) has spread rapidly in the two ensuing months, resulting in infections, and even […]
In November 2019, CMS published the 2020 Quality Payment Program Final Rule (the “2020 MIPS Final Rule Changes”). Below is a summary of some of the most notable changes to the Merit-Based Incentive Payment Program (MIPS). For a complete list of changes, please review the 2020 MIPS Final Rule or CMS’ Quality Payment Program Resource […]
Physicians will potentially have a lighter documentation burden and more time to spend with patients in 2021 thanks to an overhaul of Medicare Coding guidelines for outpatient evaluation and management (E/M) services. “The whole point was to have people not document stuff that was not necessary, not relevant to the clinical management of the patient,” […]
Coronavirus continues to dominate the news. This is a developing story will continue to update you on the latest development on this global health crisis. In the wake of the deadly coronavirus (nCoV), U.S. hospitals are preparing for an emergency response nationally by using the four “Ss” – supplies, staff, space, and system. The Centers […]
MACs may be applying the multiple endoscopy rules incorrectly. In the 2020 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) Final Rule, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) finalized the proposal to apply the special rule for multiple endoscopic procedures to the family of functional endoscopic sinus surgery (FESS) codes. Practices are now getting remittance advice […]