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.
Coding Follow Up Office Visits
Patient history is valuable any time you’re building up your documentation to show medical necessity for reimbursement of any procedure. Any time you are coding for problem visits that a patient has, it is important that you take into consideration any other office visits that they may have recently had. Basically, you are going to want to look to see if there is a connection between visits for preventative medicine as well as current health issues that may be in place, which also needs some attention. Many times, a physician will end up seeing a patient that shows up in search of a visit to fall into the category of …
Ending Confusion Over 99000 Series Codes in Your Medical Billing
There were two new codes issued in 2006 that continue to confuse many medical billers still over halfway into 2007. These two codes were created to specifically address the after-hours and red-eye services for procedures done by physicians outside the normal hours. Previously when compiling the medical coding for medical billing, a coder would have used 99050 as a “catch-all” coding. Now CPT has revised the original code and added new codes. 99053 is ” “for services between 10 p.m. and 8 a.m. in 24-hour facilities,” and will be used by both physicians on call and hospitals. Please note that code 99053’s wording to include “24-hour facility” will put a …
Compiling Your Medical Billing for Specific Injections
B-12 injections are a very common procedure. If you’re only receiving partial payments or experiencing rejections of your claims, you may need to tighten up your handling of these claims as the codes and procedures for filing criteria have undergone changes in the past year. To eliminate potential medical billing problems, there are five steps to follow to ensure smooth B-12 reimbursement for your claim. The first medical billing step is to replace the injection administration codes for the B-12. These codes include the current procedural terminology codes 90782, 90788, and G0351. These medical billing codes were deleted from the 2006 CPT list and should no longer be used. The …
Global Billing for Ob-Gyn Services
One of the common dilemmas in medical billing for Ob-Gyn services is how to report the birth of a baby when there was no doctor on hand to deliver the newborn. When the delivery is progressing trouble-free, it isn’t uncommon is for a nurse to deliver a baby when the ob-gyn is in the next room doing a procedure on another patient such as an episiotomy; then the question arises, can the service still be billed globally? Fortunately in many cases you can. It is up to the individual payer and you can find out quickly by either checking their guidelines or website to see if the service will be …
Held Up Medical Billing Claim? It Might Be the Zip Code
At the beginning of 2007; medical billing claims that are submitted to Medicare for reimbursement need to have a zip code or you can count on a delay. A National Provider Identifier requirement to include your zip code on all billing transactions took effect Jan. 1. This included all bills including RAPs, and providers must report a five or nine-digit zip code for their primary facility and its subparts. Claims without the zip codes will be returned to provider (RTP’d) with reason code 32114. This will affect any facility that does medical billing claims for Medicare reimbursement. Many providers were unaware of the new requirement and a large amount of …
When to Provide Family and PH V Codes
With all of the various codes that make up medical coding, it can be confusing when you’re separating out closely related codes to find the best fit for your medical billing claim. One situation is when it comes to figuring out the difference between both personal and family history V codes. Basically, what you need to remember is that the V codes are there to help give a window into past patient history. If there is an ongoing medical condition, the V codes can be used to tell the tale. When looking into personal history, you can find out more about any prior procedures, hospitalizations and operations, as well as …
Knowing When It is Time to Outsource Your Medical Billing
It’s hard to let go of what you might deem the financial control of your practice. Hiring a medical billing consultant can seem like you’re adding expenses instead of cutting them down, especially if you have never outsourced your billing. If you’ve always discounted outsourcing your medical billing claims because you feel as though you would be relinquishing control over your billing, read on – you’ll find that is not the case. Actually outsourcing your medical billing and coding needs through a consultant is one of the smartest business moves you can make. Don’t think you have to use a local company, many medical billing firms have branch offices in …
Medical Billing Basics – How it Starts
If you’re wondering how your medical billing gets to the outsourcing company, the answer is carefully and securely. The patients are seen as usual in your office, your staff creates the records for billing just as they always did. If you are still using paper files your claims will need to be scanned and hand entered into the medical billing system, if you transmit electronically your staff will need to only access the program and transmit the chosen claims to be processed by the medical billing company. The data will transmitted to the medical billing company who will code and double check your medical billing claims to insure they are …
Medial Dislocation – Billing it Right
A common occurrence in the emergency is the dislocation of various joints. They are sometimes incorrectly handled as breaks but shouldn’t be and you could be setting your practice up for a denial at best and audit at worst if you report these procedures incorrectly on your medical billing. Even if the reduction of the dislocation fails, the attempt should be reported on not only the medical billing as a procedure but also in the documentation as another procedure will have to be tried to relocate the elbow to its proper placement and you can show the timeline for the necessity of other and more involved treatments. On the claim …
Don’t Make a Bad Choice With a Medical Billing Partner
When you’re considering outsourcing your medical billing from your practice to a third party partner, it pays to look around and find the best fit for the needs of your individual practice. Be aware that the best choice may not be around the corner or even in the same state as your practice. With the security of Internet transmissions, you can use a company across the country and be just as secure as if you were handing your documentation directly to someone across the hall from you. Making the choice to use a medical billing company for your practice can save plenty of money. However, choosing the wrong medical billing …
