Archive for the Week of December 15, 2006
Archive for the Week of December 15, 2006
Welcome to the medical billing blog archive for the week of December 15, 2006.
Here you will find links to every article added to the Outsource Management Group web site during the week of December 15, 2006.
You can browse this week's archives by clicking the "More" button from any of the excerpts below.
Do You Know About the New Mandatory CMS-1500 Form?
Head’s up medical billers, by April 2007, it will be required that you start using the new CMS form that accommodates the new National Provider Identifier (NPI) numbers. “Because of the number and types of changes that the new CMS-1500 includes, you will need to update your billing software programs to print your claims correctly”, says Cyndee Weston, executive director of the American Medical Billing Association. That means now is the time to update your billing system software to ensure your office is ready. If you don’t already outsource your medical billing claims and you don’t want to spend the money for an upgrade – it may be time to …
Filing Locum Tenens Claims and When to Use Modifier Q6
Locum tenens is a confusing situation in the case where a physician takes a vacation or otherwise isn’t available and hires a physician to see patients on site, Medicare can deny the claim unless it is properly documented. The reason is that Medicare is very strict about seeing specific modifiers on medical billing claims that involve a substitute or locum tenens physician. Further, your medical billing claim must have the time limits observed for locum tenens doctors. Otherwise, Medicare won’t pay for their services rendered to patients. Also, you can’t hire a locum tenens as extra staff. This includes situations where the regular attending physician goes on vacation, has an …
Medical Coding for Estrogen Withdrawal
Put yourself in this medical biller’s shoes and see if you would file this claim correctly. A patient that recently had a hysterectomy presented to the ED with symptoms needing treatment. The physician noted that the patient was suffering from “estrogen withdrawal with menopausal symptoms.” A level three evaluation and management service was performed on the patient; what diagnosis code would you use? There’s no specific code for estrogen withdrawal. Stumped? In this case you should use more than one code as there is no specific code for this service. Break out the claim to show the patient’s main complaint and reason for the ED visit and then to show …
