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…
October 28, 2022 | By Brenda Edwards, CPC, CDEO, CPB, CPC-I, CEMC, CRC, CMRS, CMCS We are all excited about the upcoming 2023 E/M changes, aren’t we? Well, I can say, as a coder and auditor, I am! I’ve been in this E/M world for about 35 years. Things were easy prior to 1995,…
One of the amazing benefits of a NAMAS membership is “Ask The Expert”. For this “Take”, I’m going to share one of the questions submitted to us by a NAMAS member, Carol, about emergency room leveling related around chest pain and high complexity. So, Carol writes that the data column for most of their patients…
July 28, 2023 | By Jill Young, CPC, CEDC, CIMC I have been a consultant for over 20 years and have worked in the medical field for over 40 years. When I first was in a position that required me to research the rules and policies of both documentation and compliance issues, there was…
July 21, 2023 | By Scott Kraft, CPMA, CPC Whenever I audit charts under the 2021 E/M Documentation Guidelines, which now apply in all places of service, I like to start by reviewing the first and third columns. The first column is Number and Complexity of the Presenting Problem, and the third column is…
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…
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…