Tag: Downcoding

Payers-Wrongly-Cutting-Payments-To-Physicians-For-EM-Services

Payers Wrongly Cutting Payments To Physicians For E/M Services

Payers have been wrongly cutting payments to physicians for evaluation-and-management (E/M) services—often automatically through the use of claim-editing algorithms. A new AMA resource helps physicians fight back against health insurer downcoding. Downcoding happens when a payer changes a claim to a lower-cost service than what was submitted by the physician, leading the practice to get […]
Hospital Claim Denials

Hospital Claim Denials Up for Most, Driven by Prior Authorizations

  Hospitals and health systems are facing a growing volume of claim denials, with private plan prior authorization issues driving the recent increase, according to a new report from the American Hospital Association (AHA). For the report, AHA surveyed more than 200 hospitals and health systems in 2019 to understand the impacts utilization management practices employed by […]
AMA E&M Code Changes

2021 AMA E&M Changes: A Provocative Overview

  Many of us have been immersed in COVID-19 and telehealth billing, coding, and the varying rules among payors of late, all the while the clock has remained ticking on the looming changes to evaluation and management (E&M) services, effective Jan. 1, 2021. It is possible, too, that there are those who have not heard […]