When ICD-10-CM is updated Oct. 1, so are these National Coverage Determinations. Are you wondering which National Coverage Determinations (NCDs) will be affected by the thousands of diagnosis code changes going into effect Oct. 1? Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) transmittal tells all. CMS Transmittal 11546, issued Aug. 4, is a one-time notification […]
Throughout the years in the health information management field, we’ve always been deeply interested in clinical coding and even find clinical coding to be fun. With that comes learning about the annual coding changes: new, revised and deleted codes. That brings us to the ICD-10-CM/PCS Coordination and Maintenance (C&M) Committee, how they work and the […]
What you need to know to avoid claim denials and to maximize practice revenue Despite your best efforts to follow billing guidelines, payers still deny your claims. Or in some cases, they pay you and then take the money back. Experts say you can’t ever eliminate denials and post-payment recoupment entirely, but you can reduce […]
During a typical office visit, physicians may provide evaluation and management (E/M) services, minor procedures and more. The question is: Can they bill for each one separately? In some cases, the answer is no. In others, though, the answer is yes — but they must know what current procedural terminology (CPT) modifier to append. Modifiers […]
When the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) implemented the Patient Driven Payment Model (PDPM) as the new reimbursement method for skilled nursing facilities (SNF), some of us in the coding and auditing world thought it likely to result in inaccurate payments. The old model, the Resource Utilization Group—Version IV (RUGS-IV), calculated SNF reimbursement […]
Can you survive an OIG Audit? When the Public Health Emergency (PHE) was extended for the 10th time on July 15, 2022, continuing the PHE through October 13, 2022, so were many waivers under the 1135 CARES Act of March 20, 2020. However, if you are not keeping up with the commercial payers and the […]
Effective from discharges/visits on October 1, 2022, the 2023 Official Coding and Reporting Guidelines for ICD-10-CM have been established. On July 7, 2022, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued MLN Connects, featuring an article focusing on long COVID. This article imparts guidance on coding practices for both long COVID and ongoing COVID […]
The effective date for 0081A-0083A and 91308 is June 17, 2022. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted emergency use authorization (EUA) to the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for patients ages 6 months to 4 years. The new CPT® codes for reporting this vaccine are: 0081A Immunization administration by intramuscular injection of severe acute respiratory syndrome […]
Medicare updates its policy for these services to align with CPT®. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) revised its Part B benefit policy for critical care services, effective Jan. 1, 2022. Policy changes finalized in the 2022 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) final rule include a new definition of critical care services, who […]
Implement a compliance process in your practice for querying providers for outpatient services. Querying providers about their documentation may seem inappropriate, but it is an important part of the medical coding process. A physician query allows a medical coder to formally ask a healthcare provider a question about something they wrote (or didn’t write) in […]