Medical Billing Blog: Section - Claims
Archive of all Articles in the Claims Section
This is the archive containing links to all articles written in the Claims section of our blog.
Click any of the article links below to read the entire article or browse another section to the right to read articles on another subject.
Avoiding Costly “Medically Unlikely Edit” Denials
It can happen to any individual who is involved with coding, dealing with MUEs can end up being a nightmare if you do not know when and how to use them. MUEs, which is short for the term Medically Unlikely Edits, happen to be put in place to try and help limit the amount of billing errors. The more you understand them, the better off you will be when you find that you need to use them. If you are worried about dealing with MUEs, then you really should know that you are not alone. Luckily, there are a couple of things that you can look to and keep in …
Keep Your Observation Coding In Check
There is nothing worse than finding different coding mistakes. One of the things that you can do in order to keep certain mistakes from showing up is keep your observation coding in check. Although you may think that you know all of the general rules in terms of observation services reporting in the ED, mistakes can still happen. When you are looking to smooth out any of the wrinkles found in your observation coding, you can keep several things in mind. For starters, it is very important that you do not bill more than once for physicians that are from the same group. This is a situation that calls for …
Proper Coding Procedures For A Twin Delivery
There are all sorts of different procedures that can apply to one pregnancy where twin babies are involved. Because of the nature of delivery, often times you could have an obstetrician delivering the second baby via cesarean section while the first one was able to come out alright during a vaginal birth. When the situations can be so different each and every time for various patients, it is very important that you be sure to choose the proper codes. This can be a much easier process that you may think of at first. As long as you keep all of the procedures in mind, you should end up with the …
In Medical Billing, Partners are Valuable Assets
Did you know your medical billing partner can be counted among your most valuable business assets? Customer service and health care are also very important aspects of your practice, however, medical billing is the core of the business. You should know at all times that people responsible for the core of your business can be trusted. Knowing your medical billing staff members is imperative to your success. Medical coding and billing is an extremely skilled practice. When you outsource your medical billing claims, you have to have confidence that your medical billing partner will check the coding, put the medical documentation in order, make notations where needed and submit your …
Understanding Observation Medical Billing
A common problem many medical billing professionals face is how to handle observation related medical billing claims. The basic rule is that the patient must be in observation for a minimum of 8-hours to qualify for medical billing for observation stays. In the situation where you have a patient that was admitted and stayed less than eight hours and was released and then re-admitted less than eight hours later, is to use the observation as one day but not the same day as the discharge. CPT codes 99218-99220 and 99217. For handling an observation stay that includes an admission and discharge on the same date, you would not use 99218-99220 …
Is Your Staff Disaster Code Ready?
Hurricane season 2007 won’t be starting up again until June, however with the appearance of El Nino, a natural phenomenon that brings warmer currents to the oceans, a larger number of hurricanes is slated to develop along with more severe storms across the United States. With bad weather, unfortunately comes disasters and catastrophes, make sure if you live in a highly likely area to experience severe flooding, tornados or hurricanes that you educate your staff on using the correct codes for these special types of claims. CPT added two codes to reflect disaster related coding (DR) and catastrophe/disaster related (CR). DR is the top-level code and CR is the modifier …
Get Up To Date On Your Q Modifiers for Foot Care
More Q Modifiers were updated recently, make sure that your staff is up to date on the currently preferred to be reported when the physician is performing foot care. Modifiers Q7 (One class A finding), Q8 (Two class B findings) or Q9 (One class B and two class C findings) tell insurers why your physician is performing foot care. To determine which modifier applies to your physician’s claim, check out the following list of what Medicare and other payers include in each description: Class A Finding:Nontraumatic amputation of foot or integral skeletal portion thereof Class B Findings:Absent posterior tibial pulseAdvanced trophic changes such as (three of the following sub-categories qualify …
Free Up Your Staff By Outsourcing
If you are finding that you’re chasing medical billing claims and having a lot of rejections, it may not be your staff, it might be that they are unable to keep up with the fast pace of the ever-changing medical billing industry. It might be time to consider outsourcing your medical billing claims. And you can get a lot more than just have your medical billing claims handled. We can provide a complete medical billing service for your practice. It will include filing both your electronic and paper claims along with any necessary consulting. We also offer comprehensive medical coding services. This includes analysis of your claims, coding audits and …
Can Medical Billing Services Benefit Your Practice?
Feeling stretched too thinly? If so you will find our medical billing services can help you tremendously and it doesn’t matter if you’re located within Indiana or outside the state, we can handle medical billing claims nationwide. When you decide you’d like to use our medical billing services, we know that each provide and practice is completely individual in their needs and we will consult with your to find out what your concerns are regarding your billing. We will set your office up to communicate your medical billing claims via secure transmission to our office. If you’re interested in the rest of our Medical Billing Services we can also do …
Medical Billing Dilemma – POS Codes
For correct payment amount, accurate place of service codes are required. The failure to provide the correct place of service code with the correct current procedural terminology code for E/M services will cause your claim to get denied. One of the most important elements of medical billing is the place of service code. In medical billing, the place of service codes for an evaluation and management are commonly misused. There are several current procedural terminology codes for an evaluation and management session that correspond to different medical billing place of service codes. When using CPT 99341 (Home visit for the evaluation and management of a new patient) through 99350 (which …
