Medical Billing Blog: Section - Medical Coding
Archive of all Articles in the Medical Coding Section
This is the archive containing links to all articles written in the Medical Coding 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.
Dealing With A Chronic Condition
Finding the proper code when you’re doing the medical billing for your office can be a sticky situation when you’re presented with a medical coding situation that you have never written up before. In the event that you have this arise, it is best to break down the procedure and double check your chosen codes to make sure that you’re choosing the most current sets possible describe the services that were given to the patient, in doing so you’ll save a lot of headaches regarding declined or improper reimbursements later on down the road. When you have a perfect example of such a chronic condition that you need to code …
Questions Answered Regarding IM Injections
Do you find that you have several questions in regards to injection codes? Well, if you do then you certainly not alone! In order to determine which of the codes apply for certain injection procedures, you can use a couple of great guidelines that are sure to help you out. Perhaps you have a question on whether or not supervision plays a role in the code that you need to report. Is the physician for the patient in the office and available while the injection is going to be taking place? When the answer to this is yes, you can feel confident in reporting code 90772. A code of 9921 …
All You Should Know About Foreign Body Removal
Anyone who has been involved with coding already knows just how frustrating it can be to deal with some of the tougher cases in involving FBR, or foreign body removal. As with many of the things that you will code, this is the same in terms of the fact that each case can vary from patient to patient. For example, one patient will have a different type of removal than another and the method will also be quite different in nature. Even if they have a removal that is necessary from the same area, physicians are well known for using different methods from one another from time to time. This …
Keep Your Observation Coding In Check
There is nothing worse than finding different coding mistakes. One of the things that you can do in order to keep certain mistakes from showing up is keep your observation coding in check. Although you may think that you know all of the general rules in terms of observation services reporting in the ED, mistakes can still happen. When you are looking to smooth out any of the wrinkles found in your observation coding, you can keep several things in mind. For starters, it is very important that you do not bill more than once for physicians that are from the same group. This is a situation that calls for …
Proper Coding Procedures For A Twin Delivery
There are all sorts of different procedures that can apply to one pregnancy where twin babies are involved. Because of the nature of delivery, often times you could have an obstetrician delivering the second baby via cesarean section while the first one was able to come out alright during a vaginal birth. When the situations can be so different each and every time for various patients, it is very important that you be sure to choose the proper codes. This can be a much easier process that you may think of at first. As long as you keep all of the procedures in mind, you should end up with the …
Reporting Fourth Digit Burn Location Diagnosis
Are you finding that your coding process seems to have taken a toll in regards to burn diagnosis? After all, it is up to the coder to make the important decision of looking over the ICD-9 codes in order to choose the correct one for each specific encounter. When it seems as though there is no good way to go about this task, there are a couple of things that you can remember in order to make the process of reporting much easier for everyone involved. One thing that you will want to keep in mind when you begin is that it is important to go ahead and start by …
In Medical Billing, Partners are Valuable Assets
Did you know your medical billing partner can be counted among your most valuable business assets? Customer service and health care are also very important aspects of your practice, however, medical billing is the core of the business. You should know at all times that people responsible for the core of your business can be trusted. Knowing your medical billing staff members is imperative to your success. Medical coding and billing is an extremely skilled practice. When you outsource your medical billing claims, you have to have confidence that your medical billing partner will check the coding, put the medical documentation in order, make notations where needed and submit your …
Understanding Observation Medical Billing
A common problem many medical billing professionals face is how to handle observation related medical billing claims. The basic rule is that the patient must be in observation for a minimum of 8-hours to qualify for medical billing for observation stays. In the situation where you have a patient that was admitted and stayed less than eight hours and was released and then re-admitted less than eight hours later, is to use the observation as one day but not the same day as the discharge. CPT codes 99218-99220 and 99217. For handling an observation stay that includes an admission and discharge on the same date, you would not use 99218-99220 …
Is Your Staff Disaster Code Ready?
Hurricane season 2007 won’t be starting up again until June, however with the appearance of El Nino, a natural phenomenon that brings warmer currents to the oceans, a larger number of hurricanes is slated to develop along with more severe storms across the United States. With bad weather, unfortunately comes disasters and catastrophes, make sure if you live in a highly likely area to experience severe flooding, tornados or hurricanes that you educate your staff on using the correct codes for these special types of claims. CPT added two codes to reflect disaster related coding (DR) and catastrophe/disaster related (CR). DR is the top-level code and CR is the modifier …
Get Up To Date On Your Q Modifiers for Foot Care
More Q Modifiers were updated recently, make sure that your staff is up to date on the currently preferred to be reported when the physician is performing foot care. Modifiers Q7 (One class A finding), Q8 (Two class B findings) or Q9 (One class B and two class C findings) tell insurers why your physician is performing foot care. To determine which modifier applies to your physician’s claim, check out the following list of what Medicare and other payers include in each description: Class A Finding:Nontraumatic amputation of foot or integral skeletal portion thereof Class B Findings:Absent posterior tibial pulseAdvanced trophic changes such as (three of the following sub-categories qualify …
