Medical Billing Blog: Section - General Info
Archive of all Articles in the General Info Section
This is the archive containing links to all articles written in the General Info section of our blog.
Click any of the article links below to read the entire article or browse another section to the right to read articles on another subject.
Specified Covered Outpatient Drug Payments Make GAO Unhappy
Right now the Government Accountability Office is not a medical billing staff member’s best friend. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services are going head to head with the Government Accountability Office in regards to the new medical billing outpatient prospective payment system (OPPS). The Government Accountability Office claims that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has overestimated payments for prescription drugs and radio pharmaceuticals. They claim that the amount Medicare will pay for medical billing is more than it will cost hospitals to acquire these drugs. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services are planning to use a system called SCOD (specified covered outpatient drugs) to calculate the …
Don’t Lose Money With Radiation Medical Billing
You could be losing money on radiation treatment therapy if you don’t do your medical billing correctly. Did you know that you could lose out on over $100 if you miss one radiation therapy reimbursement. A great medical billing skill is knowing how to maximize your revenue with radiation therapy. Radiation is a type of treatment that is frequently done two or even three times a day. It is a perfectly acceptable medical billing practice to bill separately for radiation completed on the same day. It is important, however, to pay attention to the medical billing requirements set forth by the payers. Many payers require a certain amount of time …
Ways to Protect Medical Billing PHI
Transcription is a large factor in medical billing. A lot of medical transcription is hired outside of physician’s office. This can leave a lot of room for internet criminals to steal valuable PHI information used in your medical billing. Protecting your patient’s PHI not only protects your practice, but also protects their identity. There are several steps you can take to protect your patients’ medical billing PHI. The ability for criminals to obtain PHI has increased over the recent years and made it necessary to install security measures. You may know what your medical billing security practices are, but you must also know what those practices are for your transcription …
2006 Medical Billing Quality of Care
Quality of care will be of the utmost importance to medical billing in the year 2006. Now, more than ever, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid services have decided to focus reimbursement on healthcare quality. There are two ways in which CMS is trying to improve medical billing and quality of care in nursing homes. Recently The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has introduced a new website called STAR (Setting Targets, Achieving Results). This website focuses not only on medical billing, but also the quality of care in nursing homes. It aids nursing homes in sharing publicly reported data and has many quality improvement tools included. The web address …
Medical Billing Mandates Increase Premiums
State regulated medical billing mandates may be beneficial to some people, but they drive the premium costs higher. A Heritage Foundation report was conducted that had significant information for states. It suggested that the more health coverage mandates a state had, the higher the individual premiums. Medical billing mandates that are meant to help citizens may in fact be hindering them. In the Heritage Foundation medical billing report, four variations of state regulations were measured: health plan liability, mandated benefits, direct access to specialists, and provider due process. It was found that on average, medical billing premiums rose $26.72 per month in states with health plan liability mandates. In states …
Two Scans May Mean Less Reimbursement
Extensive Medicare fee reductions could severely hurt physicians bankbooks in the medical billing arena. Some physicians warn that if the projected 4.3 percent cut takes place in 2006, they may have to go out of business. One of the major issues of the debate deals with radiology scans. The American College of Radiology has a bone to pick with this possible medical billing change. The 2006 scan rule is as follows: When performing two imaging services on the same day, the payment for the technical component of the second imaging scan will be reduced by 50 percent of the current reimbursement. Radiologists are outraged by this possible medical billing cut. …
What is Medical Practice Management?
Medical Practice management is a powerful tool practices can use to fulfill their medical billing needs and more. There are four categories medical Practice management firms provide: medical coding services, medical billing services, physician credentialing, and consulting services.Medical coding services are useful services to outsource for your medical billing needs. These firms can code services and submit claims for your practice. This saves many man hours and allows only experienced people to handle the claims. The next service provided by medical practice management is medical billing services. Usually these firms can have access to your database and office information. They are in charge of making sure your office gets paid …
Big Changes for Medical Billing RVUs
Keep your ears open for medical billing Relative Value Unit changes. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid services plans on making huge cuts next year. Strangely, some medical professions will largely benefit from these cuts while a great number of other medical professionals will lose a lot of revenue. Recently, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid services released a list of medical billing winners and losers. There are many medical billing current procedural terminology codes that will receive huge double digit slashes next year. Instead of calculating the relative value units from a top down method, they will use a bottom up method. They have suggested four different ways to …
Insurer Helps to Improve Rural Area Medical Billing
Insurance companies aren’t all about taking your medical billing money. They do good as well. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina is an example of an insurance company that thinks of others. Blue Cross Blue Shield donated millions of dollars to help poor communities with medical billing expenses. A large donation of $10 million was given to north Carolina’s community practitioner program. This program is designed to assist under deserve communities with medical billing costs. It supports 95 health care professionals throughout the state. The insurance company is hoping and urging the north Carolina medical society to match their donation of $5 million. If the North Carolina medical …
New Medical Billing Nissen Code
Medical billing for a redo surgery originally done several years earlier can get a bit hazy. A Redo Nissen Surgery performed for a surgery originally done twelve years earlier should be coded the same as a regular laparoscopic Nissen procedure. The medical billing current procedural terminology code 43280 is appropriate for a redo Nissen surgery. The medical billing code CPT 43280 means: Laparoscopy, surgical, esophagogastric fundoplasty. All medical billing, whether a redo or an initial Nissen surgery would be billed using this code. However, when surgery is performed as a redo, problems may arise. For example, the first surgery may have been considerably difficult. Perhaps there was excessive scarring or …
