May 29, 2020 | by Anna McGregor, CLP, CPC, CPCO, CPMA, CEMC, CEMA | Director for Coding Integrity, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center/School of Medicine Like a sandstorm, CMS has clouded our coding world in chaos, leaving us to ponder whether all these new flexibilities will become the new standard. Leading up…
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June 5, 2020 | By Scott Kraft, CPMA, CPC During the rapid pivot to telehealth services during the COVID-19 pandemic, one of the biggest priorities has been staying on top of the array of CMS and private payer rules to ensure these services were payable. These rules included the clear need in most instances for…
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June 12, 2020 | By By Bryan Meek, Esq., Brennan, Manna, and Diamond As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to wreak havoc globally, many industries have been forced to adapt to unprecedented challenges while remaining cognizant of everchanging guidance from public health officials and government agencies. Notably, the healthcare industry has been confronted with countless practical…
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June 19, 2020 | By Grant Huang, CPC, CPMA The hype surrounding next year’s implementation of new guidelines for documenting and coding Evaluation & Management (E&M) services has revolved around the virtual elimination of the history and physical exam as key components of code selection. But some of the lesser-known changes involving…
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June 23, 2020 | By Grant Huang, CPC, CPMA One of the more challenging aspects of coding and auditing for OB/GYN providers revolves around the global obstetrical package, which bundles all services relating to pregnancy and delivery into a single global code, depending on the manner of delivery. What is part of…
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June 26, 2020 | By Holly Cassano, CPC, CRC As we move through the COVID-19 pandemic, many of us in health care are finding that many opinions and much guidance exists on the topic of telehealth/telemedicine, from many various sources. At the beginning of the COVID-19 public health emergency, the rules literally seemed to change…
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July 3, 2020 | By Stephanie Allard, CPC, CEMA, RHIT As we move towards implementing the 2021 E/M changes, we need to evaluate areas of bad habits within E/M encounter documentation. I have noticed in my current reviews that many providers are in the habit of documenting the same exact amount of…
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July 10, 2020 | By Paul Spencer, CPC, COC Regular readers of this unique space in the auditing universe have more than likely begun to prepare for 2021 outpatient E/M changes. These planned adaptations have focused mainly on documentation regarding medical decision making, as well as the total time element that is fundamental…
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July 23, 2020 | By Sean Weiss, CHC, CEMA, CMCO, CPMA, CPC-P, CMPE, CPC As you all know the Public Health Emergency (PHE) is due to expire on Saturday the 25th of July unless the Secretary of HHS issues a declaration extending the PHE under what is referred to as the Public Health Services…
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July 24, 2020 | By Sean Weiss, CHC, CEMA, CMCO, CPMA, CPC-P, CMPE, CPC Here we are, nearly at the end of July 2020 and we are neck deep in the process of trying to determine the true impact of the 2021 Evaluation and Management (E&M) Services changes. Here’s the deal from my perspective:…
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