March 22, 2024 | By Carol Ittig, MBA, CMPE Introduction: In the fast-paced world of healthcare billing, clean claims are the key to maximizing revenue and minimizing headaches. A significant contributor to claim denials is inaccurate patient eligibility information. This article explores a multi-step approach to patient eligibility verification, empowering your team to submit clean…
September 29, 2023 | By Grant Huang, CPMA, CPC If you’ve never heard of principal care management (PCM) or chronic care management (CCM) services before, you’re not alone. Medicare introduced these new benefits for Part B beneficiaries in 2021 and 2022, respectively, but the agency’s own utilization data shows that adoption has been fairly…
December 25, 2020 | By By Grant Huang, CPC, CPMA The New Year is nearly upon us and with it, implementation of the much-talked-about 2021 E/M guidelines for office/outpatient codes 99202-99215. These guidelines include completely revamping how time works for selecting code levels, which in turn has resulted in brand new rules for prolonged…
October 30, 2020 | By Edward Townley, Founder, Cogent9 Consulting We use relative value units (RVUs) in many aspects of our practices. Some physician compensation arrangements are based on RVUs; other practices use them for staffing models and productivity measurements. Where did RVUs come from and how have they evolved over time? Beginning in…
September 17, 2021 | By Doug Graham, Senior Management Consultant and Director of Concierge Medicine Services, DoctorsManagement By law, CMS is required to structure the MIPS program such that 1 out of 2 clinicians will be penalized each year. Non-compliance, submitting inaccurate or incomplete data, or failing to meet the points threshold and category…
Amy C. Pritchett, CCS, CRC, CPA-RA, CPC, CPMA, CPCO, CDEI, CDEO, CDEC, CANPC, CASCC, CMPM Manager, HCC Coding/Audit & Education Services, Pinnacle Enterprise Risk Consulting Services AAPC Fellow |Approved Instructor |ICD-10-CM/PCS Trainer On March 31, 2023, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released the CY 2024 Medicare Advantage (MA) Capitation Rates along…
September 4, 2020 | By Brenda Edwards, CPC, CDEO, CPB, CPC-I, CEMC, CRC, CMRS, CMCS Is anybody not aware of the Evaluation and Management (E/M) changes coming in January 2021? Have you asked your administrator, managers, front office, back office, and providers if they are ready for these major changes? Anybody that touches CPT® 99202-99215…
November 20, 2020 | By Brenda Edwards, CPC, CDEO, CPB, CPC-I, CEMC, CRC, CMRS, CMCS COVID-19 has been disrupting the healthcare environment for over a year now. Massive changes and evolutions have been introduced for how to code for services during COVID-19 including virtual visits, lab testing, and vaccinations. This article will cover COVID-19…
May 29, 2020 | by Anna McGregor, CLP, CPC, CPCO, CPMA, CEMC, CEMA | Director for Coding Integrity, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center/School of Medicine Like a sandstorm, CMS has clouded our coding world in chaos, leaving us to ponder whether all these new flexibilities will become the new standard. Leading up…
May 28, 2021 | Aimee L. Wilcox, CPMA, CCS-P, CST, MA, MT, Director of Content, innoviHealth Prolonged services codes were created to capture reimbursement for time spent with a patient that goes beyond the typical time associated with the primary service. We’re all aware of those patients that, unexpectedly, require so much prolonged provider…