All Articles Written by Kathryn Disney-Etienne, CCS-P, RT
All Articles Written by Kathryn Etienne, CCS-P - RETIRED
Welcome to the archived list of all medical billing articles written and previously posted to the site by Kathryn Etienne, CCS-P, retired Director of Operations.
All articles are listed below and categorized by date, newest to oldest. Click any article link below to read the entire article.
Don’t Make a Bad Choice With a Medical Billing Partner
When you’re considering outsourcing your medical billing from your practice to a third party partner, it pays to look around and find the best fit for the needs of your individual practice. Be aware that the best choice may not be around the corner or even in the same state as your practice. With the security of Internet transmissions, you can use a company across the country and be just as secure as if you were handing your documentation directly to someone across the hall from you. Making the choice to use a medical billing company for your practice can save plenty of money. However, choosing the wrong medical billing …
Medical Billing – Beginning With the Basics
It starts with a patient who sees a physician. The patient gives the office their insurance or Medicare card and a new medical billing form is generated. No matter what procedures are rendered to the patient, it will be documented in the form of numbers called CPT codes, on the medical billing form. If the patient has any testing done such as a blood or urine sample, basic evaluation or even a patient history interview, all of this including if the patient is a first time visit or not will be documented on the medical billing form. If there is a reason for the patient not feeling well such as …
Reimbursements For Therapy Medical Billing
One of the biggest eyebrow raisers for carriers as far as medical billing claims go are any claim submitted for reimbursement for therapy based medical billing claims. Most therapy claims are 100% legitimate but because of the amount of fraud that has been perpetrated by a few unscrupulous individuals all of these types of claims get closer looks than ever. One way to insure your claims are submitted correctly is to make sure the documentation is done absolutely accurately in your therapy department. In a recent audit of claims, the CMS found that the number one error in reporting therapy medical billing claims is with the minutes billed. Make sure …
Don’t Make Mistakes On Admission Codes
As you know, a hospital admission requires face-to-face service. However a common dilemma that many medical billers find themselves in is when a surgeon “admits” the patient and then isn’t present when the patient arrives at the hospital to check in. In most cases the physician will dictate the history and physical (H&P) over the phone to the hospital and then send the patient over, however the dilemma for the medical billing occurs over the fact that the face-to-face interaction between physician and patient doesn’t occur until the following day. First of all, your dates must correspond. If the physician doesn’t see the patient in the hospital that day (performing …
Use Modifiers Carefully To Avoid Audits
If you commonly use modifier V57.1 (Other Physical Therapy) in your medical billing claims, be on the alert that the close scrutiny that started in 2006 will continue for your medical billing claims submitted. The reason for the close scrutiny is that some medical billing claims were submitted with medically unnecessary services actually done by the physician. This review started in Iowa and now is taking place in many states and will continue to do so until all states have been audited. Currently, the review will affect Part B Medicare patients only who are part of the outpatient home healthcare program. The reviewers will select home health outpatient claims with …
