Medical Billing Blog: Section - Outsourcing
Archive of all Articles in the Outsourcing Section
This is the archive containing links to all articles written in the Outsourcing 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.
Proper Coding for Cervical Vertebroplasty
Some of the confusion about preparing medical billing is that the CPT does not always provide an exact code for a particular procedure, in this case we’ll use percutaneous vertebroplasty of cervical vertebra(e). It’s not a common procedure but it does occur and until recent years did not have its own designation and even today, some payers aren’t up to date on the proper coding to use to report this procedure. Before CPT added percutaneous vertebroplasty codes 22520-22522 in 2001, most payers recommended that coders report all vertebroplasty procedures using 22899 (Unlisted procedure, spine). Most payers still recommend using 22899 code for cervical vertebroplasties, as many carriers aren’t aware of …
Choosing A Medical Billing Company
Deciding to outsource your medical billing is not a decision to be taken lightly, and in the beginning you may not even need to outsource your billing in the beginning. But soon, you will find that your staff is so busy servicing your patients and running your office with its day-to-day goings on, finally you have to look at outsourcing. There have been some horror stories out there about physicians outsourcing their medical billing or practice management to a company and then finding out it cost them even more money because the company just wasn’t up to date on their coding books or simply not experienced enough to handle the …
More Reasons to Outsource Billing Functions
Outsourcing your medical billing will remove so many of your headaches in your practice with your medical billing. A sobering statistic about family physicians who do their own medical billing is that they can be suffering a loss of 10%-20% of their reimbursements each year simply due to incorrect coding. It’s important for your staff to understand the documentation guidelines especially for E/M (evaluation and management) services. Your practice probably uses about 30 codes for about 95% of your patient visits per day. Make sure your staff is familiar with those codes that apply directly to your office’s procedures and the documentation those medical billing codes require. It can seem …
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 …
Reasons to Outsource Your Medical Billing Functions
If you’ve been feeling the stress and strain of too much paperwork and time spent preparing medical billing for your practice and not enough time is left to service your patients to help your practice grow, it might be time to consider outsourcing your medical billing claims. There are some sobering facts about medical billing claims that might give you pause to consider it might be time to outsource your medical billing. When you consider that healthcare providers averaged spending $7 billion annually just submitting claims to carriers. Another jaw dropping fact about your medical billing claims, is you might be missing being reimbursed for nearly 1/3 of your legitimate …
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), …
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 …
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. …
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 …
