March 28, 2023 | By Shannon DeConda, CPC, CEMC, CEMA, CPMA, CRTT With the adaptation of 2021 Guidelines and the reduction in documentation requirements, many coders and auditors had thought the use of copy and paste may begin to phase out. Unfortunately, this has not been the case, primarily because many providers are still…
March 31, 2023 | By Pam Vanderbilt, CPC, CPMA, CPPM, CPC-I, CEMC, CDEO, CPB, CFPC, CRC, CPEDC, CEMA President, Knowledge Tree Billing, Inc. A lot happens in March! Spring officially begins — bringing with it new growth, Spring Break, and basketball fans across the country get bracket crazy with March Madness. In all the…
February 24, 2023 | By Sonal Patel, CPMA, CPC, CMC, ICDCM Well, the time is finally here! 2023 has ushered in a new standard for how we look at evaluation and management (“E/M”) services. Physicians, providers, coders, auditors, educators, and compliance professionals alike are finally able to utilize much more than the “bean-counting” methods…
February 17, 2023 | By Brenda Edwards, CPC, CDEO, CPB, CPC-I, CEMC, CRC, CMRS, CMCS Happy Friday! We have our first month of 2023 behind us which means the first of the claims for the new year have been submitted. Here’s the $100,000 question – are you claims paying appropriately with the 2023 Evaluation…
In the expansion category of the 2021 documentation guidelines, there’s some information that may be a little confusing that would like to review with you in Today’s Take. On page 23, under Initial Hospital Inpatient or Observation Care, under the New and Established Patient, there’s a paragraph that reads a little confusing: “If a consultation…
January 27, 2023 | By Stephanie Allard, CPC, CEMA, RHIT A large part of the last 6 months for auditors and educators has been spent in preparation for the new 2023 revisions to the 2021 E/M guidelines. For some of the patient settings, this is a large change. While many see the 2021 E/M…
January 19, 2023 | By Scott Kraft, CPMA, CPC Practices and providers can bill monthly chronic pain management services for Medicare patients beginning in 2023, using two new HCPCS G codes: G3002 and G3003. But these new codes come with specific guidelines that auditors will need to be on the lookout for when providers…
Today’s Take is about independent interpretation, and I know we’ve talked about this before, but I think this is one we’ll have to discuss a lot. Recently I got a question about this topic from Tracy (Hi Tracy! I’m glad to answer your question.) So, Tracy explained that her providers are pain management providers and…
January 13, 2023 | By J. Paul Spencer, CPC, COC I received a great question the other day, and I thought it was a great stepping-off point for a discussion in this space. It’s 2023, and a patient is placed in observation status by an admitting physician. A non-admitting physician is called in for…
December 2, 2022 | By Jill Young, CPC, CEDC, CIMC While listening to the virtual AMA CPT/RBRVS Annual Symposium lecture by Gift Tee, BS, MPH, Director of the Division of Practitioner Services in the Hospital and Ambulatory Policy Group (HAPG) of CMS on the Update from Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), I…