Tag: medical-billing

E/M Coding Guidelines

4 Strategies For Accurate Medical Coding & Denial Prevention

4 Strategies For Accurate Medical Coding and Denial Prevention Payers typically deny evaluation and management codes (E/M code) on the back end of the billing process, which can cause costly reimbursement recoupments, according to Medical Economics. Four tips to avoid denials caused by inaccurate E/M levels: Make sure the E/M code supports the specific patient encounter. […]
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Medical Coding Roght

Boost Revenue By Getting Coding Right

It’s every physician’s worst nightmare: Receive payment for services rendered, but then a payer identifies an aberrant pattern in claims data, audits the records, decides it has overpaid the practice, and recoups those funds. That money you already allocated for overhead, staff salaries, bonuses, or new medical equipment? Gone. With one post-payment audit, you now […]
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Patient Collections

Improve Patient Collections Through Billing Transparency

An overwhelming majority (92 percent) of patients want to know their payment responsibility prior to visit. This statistic, from InstaMed’s seventh Trends in Healthcare Payments Report, highlights the recent shift in patient financial engagement. Patients have become consumers who seek transparency and flexibility when paying for healthcare expenditures. However, medical groups are lagging when it comes to meeting […]
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outpatient Medicare claims

CMS Delays OPPS Claim Edits For Off-Campus Provider-Based Depts

OPPS claim edits slated to take effect this month will now start in October to give providers more take to adjust to billing changes for off-campus provider-based departments. CMS is postponing the implementation of outpatient prospective payment system (OPPS) claim edits that would require hospitals and health systems with multiple locations to list provider addresses […]
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Healthcare Costs

Out-of-Pocket Costs Increased Across All Healthcare In 2018

Patients experienced out-of-pocket increases as high as 12% for their healthcare costs last year, according to a new analysis by TransUnion Healthcare. Released this week at the 2019 Healthcare Financial Management Association Annual Conference in Orlando, Florida, the analysis shows increases occurred in all categories including inpatient, outpatient and emergency department (ED) care. Specifically, inpatient care costs […]
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Medicare Cards

The New Medicare Cards: What You Need to Know About Medicare Beneficiary Identifiers (MBIs)

To protect the privacy of Medicare recipients and prevent fraudulent use of Social Security Numbers (SSN), a new, unique 11-character Medicare Beneficiary Identifier (MBI) is replacing the SSN-based Health Insurance Claim Number (HICN) for Medicare transactions such as billing, eligibility status, and claim submissions. The MBI does not change Medicare benefits. What’s Behind The Change? The […]
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LT/RT Modifiers

Change To RT And LT Modifiers Use

The Durable Medical Equipment Medicare Administrative Contractors (DME MAC) are changing the requirement that medical coders to use the right (RT) and left (LT) modifiers for certain HCPCS codes, and that the modifiers be used when billing two of the same item or accessory on the same date of service and the items are being used bilaterally. The […]
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ICD-10-PCS Code

CMS Releases FY 2020 ICD-10-PCS Codes Set

CMS released the fiscal year (FY) 2020 ICD-10-PCS changes on Friday, May 31, which include two code revisions, 734 additions, and 2,056 invalidations. The files include information on ICD-10-PCS updates that all inpatient coders must use for discharges occurring from October 1, 2019, through September 30, 2020. The total number of ICD-10-PCS codes for 2019 was 78,881. […]
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Surprise Billing Solution

Providers, Insurers Parse What They Could Support – And What They Won’t – In Surprise Billing Solution

While both providers and insurers have found it difficult to agree on a solution to surprise billing, experts on both sides expressed support Tuesday for banning the practice – thereby forcing insurers and providers to work out payment disputes among themselves—when patients have gone to in-network hospitals. The approach, which has been tried in Oregon, […]
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