August 7, 2020 | By By Rachel Rose, JD, MBA The Health Information Portability and Accountability Act, Pub. L. 104-191 (Aug. 1996) (“HIPAA”) is often times misapplied. Take the COVID-19 pandemic for example. Despite the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) and the Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) reiterating the exceptions present…
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August 15, 2020 | By Shannon DeConda, CPC, CPC-1, CPMA, CEMC, CMSCS As we migrate to the new AMA CPT Guidelines for Outpatient Office E&M visits, we mourn the loss of what has been our cozy wearing of the 1995 & 1997 Documentation Guidelines. Out of sentimental respect for the Documentation Guidelines for E&M…
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August 21, 2020 | By Jesse Overbay, JD On March 13, 2020, the President of the United States issued an emergency declaration under the Stafford Act to declare a national health emergency, setting in motion a chain of events for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”) and our entire healthcare system that…
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September 11, 2020 | By Shannon DeConda, CPC, CPC-1, CPMA, CEMC, CMSCS Living in the “Florida’s Space Coast” we are quite attuned to hearing launch references- and we can certainly relate as we wind down to the 3-2-1 months before the new AMA E&M Guidelines are effective. Kennedy Space Center lists valuable tips for…
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September 25, 2020 | By Grant Huang, CPC, CPMA With two key components of E/M level selection – the history and physical exam – being eliminated as factors for choosing a code level, medical decision making (MDM) will take center stage in 2021. As we begin the final quarter of 2020, coders and auditors…
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