Archive for the Week of October 8, 2005
Archive for the Week of October 8, 2005
Welcome to the medical billing blog archive for the week of October 8, 2005.
Here you will find links to every article added to the Outsource Management Group web site during the week of October 8, 2005.
You can browse this week's archives by clicking the "More" button from any of the excerpts below.
Outsourcing Your Medical Billing In Georgia
Outsourcing Your Medical Billing In Georgia You have a busy medical practice in Georgia and your staff is pushed the limit just servicing the phones and the patients. Forget about submitting your medical billing claims in a timely manner, and when your claims get rejected from time to time because your staff doesn’t have time to keep up with all the coding changes that happen…well you get the idea. So, now you’re thinking about outsourcing your medical billing to an outside source. That’s a big decision if you’ve never done it before. You may have even heard horror stories from other physicians who have outsourced their medical billing with not …
Medicare Still Unsure On Coding For Prostrate
Medicare Still Unsure On Coding For Prostate Screening The Medicare medical billing dilemma about prostate screening coverage is still a heated issue. Almost all preventative care in the past was not covered by Medicare. Recently, they decided to allow billing for medical prostate cancer screening charges. The problem is that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services never removed V76.44 (Special screening for malignant neoplasms of the prostate) from the non-covered codes list. This medical billing problems has brought much confusion to the medical world. Many medical billing personnel have become confused by this conflicting new rule. As the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services have it now, the current …
Watch Your Upper Payment Limits Or You Could Be Responsible For Refunds
When receiving medical payments after billing, it is important to make sure the upper payment limit is accurate. If the upper payment limit is too high, you may end up having to refund Medicaid or Medicare. North Carolina is currently going through this medical billing upper payment limit problem. In North Carolina, the Office of Inspector General did an audit and found that in 2003, the state was miscalculating inpatient payments. Apparently, when doing medical billing, they began figuring the upper payment limit by taking Medicaid charges changed to costs. They were supposed to figure the medical billing limit by using the hospital’s recent cost reports. The result was a …
The Three R’s Of Radiology Medical Coding
The Three R’s Of Radiology Medical Coding When performing medical billing for radiology it is important to remember the three R’s. To ensure your radiology claims will be processed accurately and without delay, there are three elements that should be included with your medical billing: request, render, report. The first medical billing R for radiology is request. This means a physician has requested the opinion of a radiologist. This must be a formal request and needs to be written down in the patient’s record. If this is in a hospital setting, the request can be in the medical record, progress note, or a completely separate written request. The second element …
Proper Coding Of Arterial Stent Avoids Audits
Proper Coding Of Arterial Stent Avoids Audits A medical billing audit on arterial stents could highlight your coding errors. It is important when billing to provide the most accurate and up to date medical coding possible. To ensure all medical payments are correct, proper arterial stent billing is necessary. Recently, the HHS Office of Inspector General did an audit for claims processed in 2002 for arterial stents. These medical billing claims were all from Texas providers processed by the contractor called Trailblazer Health Enterprises, LLC. Out of seventy two arterial stent bills, twenty of them were incorrectly processed by Medicare. This billing resulted in a medical over payment of over …
Coming Price Cuts To Certain DME
Coming Price Cuts To Certain DME The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has a medical billing change coming that will cut the reimbursement rate of power wheelchairs. Soon the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will use the gap-filling method to set the medical billing fee schedule for these chairs. This new medical billing method will severely decrease the reimbursement amount for power wheelchairs. The gap-filling medical billing fee schedule method is when the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services takes the cost for the durable medical equipment back in 1987. Then, they figure the price for the current year using increases in fee schedule amounts. Unfortunately, for power …
Medical Billing Reimbursements For Professional Fees
Getting Medical Billing Reimbursements For Professional Fees Doing medical billing is only one aspect of getting reimbursed for professional fees. Many things must take place in order to get correct reimbursement for professional medical services. Services must be rendered, accurate documentation must be taken, and correct medical billing practices are all requirements of getting reimbursed for medical professional fees. The first thing that must take place before you can even perform medical billing is the rendering of a service. A complete exam or lab, or x-ray, surgery, etc must be performed for everything to take place. It is important to treat patients with respect because if you do they will …
Boosting Medicare Revenues For Rehab Services
Boosting Medicare Revenues For Rehab Services Medical billing may not be changing for Medicare rehab services, but patient premiums are. On September 16, 2005, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced that the Medicare Part B premiums will increase in 2006 to $88.50 a month. This is up $10.30 from the current premium of $78.20 a month. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services says this change in medical premiums will not negatively effect patient billing. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services says this premium hike is necessary for the survival of the program. They say that in recent years much more medical billing has been done for …
New HCPCS Coding Changes Include New Categories
New HCPCS Coding Changes Include New Categories The times are changing for medical billing codes. There have been changes to the Healthcare Common Procedural Codes System which include new medical billing codes and completely different categories. On October first there are several new medical billing codes your practice should get familiar with. The main difference with the Healthcare Common Procedural Coding System is the new release of low-vision rehabilitation service codes. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services released these codes (G9041-G9044). They are based on 15-minute intervals and have different codes depending on what kind of therapist does the service. Also included in the medical billing codes are many …
Bundling Claims Brings Higher Ob-Gyn Reimbursements
Bundling Claims Brings Higher Ob-Gyn Reimbursements Medicare has made several changes to the bundling procedure for Ob-Gyn medical billing. The procedures for bundling codes or not bundling certain current procedural terminology codes when doing medical billing constantly changes for Medicare. In order to receive the highest reimbursement possible, it is necessary to know the correct billing for certain medical current procedural terminology codes. The latest Medicare change deals with current procedural terminology code 57283 (colpopexy, vaginal; intra-peritoneal approach). You can no longer perform separate billing for this medical code and 57280 (Colpopexy, abdominal approach). They are mutually exclusive. This means that if both codes are reported on the same day …
