January 31, 2020 | By Pam Vanderbilt, CPC, CPMA, CPPM, CPC-I, CEMC, CEMA, CEMA-O The year 2021 will bring significant changes to how we determine the level of evaluation and management services in the outpatient setting. We will no longer score history and exam elements, instead focusing on medical decision making or…
February 7, 2020 | By Pam Vanderbilt, CPC, CPMA, CPPM, CPC-I, CEMC, CEMA, CEMA-O Previously we explored the 2021 changes that effect how diagnoses will be scored. Today we will dive into the changes to the data element of MDM. We know the year 2021 will bring significant changes to how we…
February 14, 2020 | By Pam Vanderbilt, CPC, CPMA, CPPM, CPC-I, CEMC, CEMA, CEMA-O Next year will see the implementation of significant changes to E&M guidelines, reducing the emphasis on the history and exam components while highlighting medical decision making (M.D.M.). In our last audit tip on the E&M changes, we discussed…
February 21, 2020 | By Pam Vanderbilt, CPC, CPMA, CPPM, CPC-I, CEMC, CEMA, CEMA-O In the first three articles of this series, we explored how the 2021 E&M changes to office visits will affect each element of medical decision making (MDM): diagnoses, data, and the table of risk. In this article, we…
December 31, 2019 | By Stephanie Allard, CPC, CEMA, RHIT As of January 1, 2020, CPT made changes to the health and behavior assessment and intervention codes (96150-96155) and therapeutic interventions that focus on cognitive function (97127). If you code and audit services in this category, you must pay close attention to…
January 8, 2020 | By Shannon DeConda, CPC, CPC-I, CEMC, CMSCS, CPMA It is truly amazing to finally begin to see new reimbursement opportunities for services that providers have given for years without compensation. One such area is in a new code set this year for Behavior Assessment & Intervention. This code…
Leave the Tylenol at home — you won’t need it for this webinar! What a refreshing webinar this is- not only in this extraordinary season we are currently in, doesn’t make us feel lost, or hanging without help. Shannon Deconda presents in a way that even the beginners of us, to the most experienced, are…
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…
June 19, 2020 | By Grant Huang, CPC, CPMA The hype surrounding next year’s implementation of new guidelines for documenting and coding Evaluation & Management (E&M) services has revolved around the virtual elimination of the history and physical exam as key components of code selection. But some of the lesser-known changes involving…
June 26, 2020 | By Holly Cassano, CPC, CRC As we move through the COVID-19 pandemic, many of us in health care are finding that many opinions and much guidance exists on the topic of telehealth/telemedicine, from many various sources. At the beginning of the COVID-19 public health emergency, the rules literally seemed to change…