Medical Billing Blog: Section - Medical Billing
Archive of all Articles in the Medical Billing Section
This is the archive containing links to all articles written in the Medical Billing 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.
History of Present Illness and Your Medical Billing
When to combine history of present illness and review of systems causes a lot of confusion among many practices. However it is possible to do and is perfectly acceptable to document an element once to account for HPI and ROS. In many instances, a physician will leave a medical billing company with tons of documentation for a review of systems, but not enough information for the history of present illness. The physician is missing out on some additional revenue by not documenting the ROS. The CMS states that physicians do not need to document an element two times for medical billing purposes. It is perfectly acceptable to use one element …
ADD/ADHD Medical Billing Reimbursements
Attention providers, are you getting reimbursed for your medical billing ADD medication rechecks? With the rise of ADD/ADHD in America, it is very important to medical practices to understand how to get paid. When dealing with mental health diagnoses, you walk a fine line with most insurance companies. There is one way most payers will reimburse your ADD/ADHD medical billing. Most physicians like to code ADD medication rechecks with the 90862 medical billing code. This code means, pharmacologic management, including prescription, use, and review of medication with no more than minimal medical psychotherapy. Although there is no problem using this CPT code with the diagnosis 314. (Hyperkinetic syndrome of childhood), …
Medical Billing Mistakes Can Cost Your Thousands
Medical Billing Mistakes Can Cost Your Thousands Don’t let the federal government’s mistake cause your medical billing reimbursement to suffer. In September 2005, The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced that certain homecare contractors had made a medical billing mistake. It appears they had denied physicians payment for homecare services that should have been reimbursable. This medical billing error has negatively effected many organizations since then. The Medicare denial of payment effected the skilled nursing facilities especially. When physicians did not receive payment for necessary services, they ended up charging the care facilities directly. Unfortunately, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services made a mistake. There were several services …
Medical Billing Reporting For Inpatients Made Easy
Medical Billing Reporting For Inpatients Made Easy One of the most difficult medical billing feats is inpatient consultation coding. There are many instances when a follow-up inpatient consult should be replaced by a subsequent hospital care visit. To eliminate these medical billing errors, there are four facts to consider when coding for inpatient consults. The first fact is very obvious. If your report an inpatient consultation exam, the patient must be inpatient, not outpatient. Very often physicians see patients on a consultation basis when they are outpatient. Medical billing mistakes can be made easily. Double check your work. It is important in medical billing to always report one initial consultation. …
New Codes For Home Health Medical Billing
New Codes For Home Health Medical Billing The Home Health consolidated medical billing list is being updated. In an effort to smooth out the changes of moving to a new coding system, there have been some new home health service codes added to the repertoire. In addition to five new medical billing codes, there will be three supply home health consolidated billing codes that will disappear. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid services have made it clear that home health services are not being redefined. The services still mean the same things. The only reason medical billing consolidated codes are being added and dropped is due to the new coding …
Getting Your Ob-Gyn Claims Paid With Correct Coding
Getting Your Ob-Gyn Medical Billing Claims Paid With Correct Coding There was a medical billing study done at the University of Illinois Hospital from 1999-2001. This was a study to see how many coding errors occurred in patients admitted for eclampsia and preeclampsia during this time. The study was astonishing. There were 67 total errors in this one study. Medical billing coding errors frequently happen with ob-gyn patients. Surprisingly, in this medical billing ob-gyn study, over 80% of the coding errors happened with clinicians. That means actual doctors were, and are, incorrectly coding ICD-9 codes and CPT codes. Most of the time people blame the actual coder instead of the …
Medical Billing Codes 70551-70553
Using Medical Billing Codes 70551-70553 for MRI and IAC Properly There are many times in medical billing when a patient receives both an IAC and brain MRI. The question is, can the medical biller be reimbursed for both of these services separately? If the medical billing personnel asked the American Medical Association this question, the answer would be simple. They would say that you can absolutely get separately reimbursed for an IAC and brain MRI in the same session. Realistically, however, this is not exactly true. The requirement to code for both x-rays is that they need two separate and distinct exams. Each exam is required to have distinct findings. …
Medical Billing and EOB
Medical Billing and EOB The goal of any medical billing firm is to receive a correct check and correct explanation of benefits (EOB) from an insurance company. Sometimes this is easier said then done. Many times the EOB goes one place and the check goes another. What is the easiest and most productive method for posting payments for medical billing? The first method is an example of a practice that does their own medical billing. In this case, it is beneficial to make sure a check and EOB are sent to the practice and a duplicate is sent to the patient. This prevents future problems with remainders owed. It also …
What is a Late Bill Override Date?
A term you will hear from time to time, especially if your practice is still filing your own claims and you haven’t outsourced your medical billing yet, is LBOD. LBOD stands for Late Bill Override Date and it’s fairly cut and dried. Basically the provider uses the LBOD to document compliance with timely filing requirements which insures that you get reimbursed for services rendered. Generally, you should only use the LBOD if you are filing a claim with dates of service older than 120 days and you must have all documentation on file for these addendums to your medical billing claims. The LBOD is permissible to use on either paper …
Using 92552 Correctly To Avoid Fraud Charges
Using 92552 Correctly To Avoid Fraud Charges Medical billing companies for audiology practices have long struggled over when to use the cpt codes 92552 versus 92551. 92551 means: screening test, pure tone, air only. 92552 means, pure tone audiometry (threshold); air only. You may be thinking, “What’s the difference?”. By definition, the difference between the two cpt codes is slight, but when medically billing these codes, it is huge. To avoid fraudulent charges, correct billing of 92552 is necessary. First we will begin with what it means to use 92551 in medical billing. Simply put, an audiologist places headphones on a patient. Then the doctor sets the machine at a …
