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…
March 24, 2023 | By Jennifer McNamara, CCS,CPC,CDEO,CPMA,CRC, COSC,CGSC,COPC, AAPC Approved Instructor | Director of Education and Coding, oncospark When auditing medical charts, there are significant differences between evaluation and management services (E/M) and surgical services. These differences are essential to understand to ensure that the medical documentation is accurate, complete, and compliant with regulatory requirements.…
Just as we have changed professionally post-COVID, our work environments also may have changed or may need to change. In Today’s Take, I’d like to discuss the structural changes that need to take place post-COVID. Recently, Stephanie Allard did an amazing job presenting a NAMAS webinar addressing the organizational structure of your internal audit teams.…
We often spend a lot of time talking about prescription drug management. Today in our “Take” we will spend time addressing over-the-counter medication. This question was submitted to me by Kelly, who works in a dermatology practice, but her question is relevant no matter your specialty. Kelly’s question is about a physician who is using…
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…
February 10, 2023 | By Grant Huang, CPMA, CPC The realm of E/M auditing is vast, and 2023 will bring more work here than before thanks to CPT’s extensive revisions to its E/M guidelines for inpatient, facility, and home visit services — now in effect. Both compliance professionals and providers must always keep in…
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…