April 24, 2020 | By Stanley Nachimson, Nachimson Advisors After a lengthy period of comments and discussions with industry leaders and vendors, the final Interoperability Rules for EHRs and health plans were released by HHS. These rules contain a myriad of technical and policy requirements for the electronic exchange of standardized data among providers…
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May 1, 2020 | By Stephanie Allard, CPC, CEMA, RHIT Over the years I have found that one of the main risks to an organization are employees who get comfortable in their positions to the point where the explanation for or response to an audit variance is “that is how we have always…
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May 8, 2020 | By Paul Spencer, CPC, COC Time, as it applies to procedures and services, is a vastly misunderstood portion of the Resource Based Relative Value Scale (RBRVS), the methodology used to generate the relative value units (RVUs) that determine the payment for every CPT code. For many years, information on the…
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May 15, 2020 | By Stephanie Allard, CPC, CEMA, RHIT Over the past month, I have heard comments wondering why we would continue to audit during the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE). Many commented that with so much going on, there is not enough time, and the encounters are now telehealth so what is…
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Leave the Tylenol at home — you won’t need it for this webinar! What a refreshing webinar this is- not only in this extraordinary season we are currently in, doesn’t make us feel lost, or hanging without help. Shannon Deconda presents in a way that even the beginners of us, to the most experienced, are…
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May 29, 2020 | By Kari M Keller, CCS, CPC, CPMA, CEMA, CIRCC, CPC-I, CCDS-O | Senior Manager Coding Quality, Inova Health System Those who know me best know that I am an absolute optimist. I can find the positive in almost everything. So, what has this stay-at-home order impacted? We slowed our lives down. We…
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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 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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