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.
6 Tips for OB-Gyn Medical Billing
For maternity, a global medical billing is the most common form of claim submission. This can get very tricky for the personnel in your office. Be sure to train your medical billing staff the correct way to bill global maternity claims. There are 6 medical billing tips for global Obstetrical care. First, be sure that your diagnosis code (ICD-9) range in the 640-678 numbers. These are the only acceptable ICD-9 codes for global maternity care. Diagnosis codes are the first step to a correct claim. The second tip also deals with the diagnosis code. Be sure you use the correct fifth digit when you decide to use this many numbers. …
What are NCCI Edits?
If you’re still uncertain what a mutually exclusive edit is and whether you’re using the latest NCCI version in your ob-gyn practice, you could be setting yourself up for future reimbursement hassles. The National Correct Coding Initiative edits are pairs of CPT or HCPCS Level II codes that Medicare (and many private payers) will not reimburse on an individual basis except under exceptional circumstances. Medicare applies the edits to services billed by the same provider for the same beneficiary on the same date of service. Example: The most recent edition of NCCI (version 12.2), effective July 1, includes an edit bundling therapeutic injection code 90772 (Therapeutic, prophylactic or diagnostic injection …
Get Your Inpatient Medical Billing Reimbursed Better
Ob-gyn patients present a lot of unique problems for medical billing. In the case of a pregnancy, the condition usually won’t have a long historical documentation. There isn’t a certain number of inpatient admission days for delivery patients that can be billing globally as each delivery is unique. You did to ascertain if the patient developed complications and also if the ob-gyn is also the treating physician or only making rounds with the patient. You will need to separate out the claim for some carriers accordingly. That will narrow down if you need to bill this claim globally or not. In the case that the patient is not admitted for …
4 Points For Easy Inpatient Billing
One of the most difficult medical billing feats is inpatient consultation coding. There are many instances when a follow-up inpatient consult should be replaced by a subsequent hospital care visit. To eliminate these medical billing errors, there are four facts to consider when coding for inpatient consults. Number one is very obvious. If your report an inpatient consultation exam, the patient must be inpatient, not outpatient. Very often physicians see patients on a consultation basis when they are outpatient. Medical billing mistakes can be made easily. Double check your work. Number two, it is important in medical billing to always report one initial consultation. This code will correspond with the …
Hiring a Medical Billing Consultant?
It’s hard to let go of what you might deem the financial control of your practice. Hiring a medical billing consultant can seem like you’re adding expenses instead of cutting them down, especially if you have never outsourced your billing. If you’ve always discounted outsourcing your medical billing claims because you feel as though you would be relinquishing control over your billing, read on – you’ll find that is not the case. Actually outsourcing your medical billing and coding needs through a consultant is one of the smartest business moves you can make. Don’t think you have to use a local company, many medical billing firms have branch offices in …
