Medical Billing Blog: All Articles by Guest Authors

Archive of All Articles by Guest Authors

This is the archive containing links to all articles written by guest authors and published in 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.

EHR Satisfaction and Ease of Use

If you are a healthcare worker in any field, you are probably aware of the HITECH Act.  This Act was the inception of the electronic medical record (EHR), and meaningful use.  Meaningful use was the proposal from CMS and ONC.  The idea was to have the electronic medical record have interoperable capabilities throughout the United States (cdc.gov 2019).  We know now that is not in effect.   The introduction of the HITECH Act was to demonstrate to the reader that the front line healthcare worker (Physician, Nurse, Physician Assistant, Certified Nurse Assistant, etc.), are the workers that are the most impacted by the use of the electronic medical record.  If

Published By: Michelle Bottone | No Comments

Demonstrating the Complexity of Care

SCENARIO: So, you are working at a multi-specialty practice that recently employed a urologist. As the Lead Medical Auditor and a member of the Corporate Compliance Team, you begin to worry about the chart audits as you have no members on your team that have worked within this specialty before. Take a deep breath – and remember that the largest volume of claims that the urologist will bill are E&M services. Regardless of the specialty of any medical practice, each will utilize Evaluation and Management (E&M) services in greater volumes than surgical services. Specialty-specific trained medical auditors are well versed in trudging through records to note the disease processes and

Published By: Shannon DeConda | No Comments

5 Steps To Ensure Audit-Proof Medical Claims with ICD-10

You know how important submitting accurate medical claims are for the health of your practice. With a solid and detailed coding policy in place, your practice can ensure strong documentation to prove medical necessity for services that your physicians provide, and get paid accurately for those services. Follow these five easy steps to help you establish a policy that will save you from future audit:   Establish coding resources in your library Step 1: To design an effective coding policy, start with making sure that you adhere to the ICD-9-CM Official Guidelines for Coding and Reporting. Not keeping yourself up-to-date with these standard rules can land you into big trouble. The Official Guidelines

Published By: Steve Gray Stevenson | No Comments

ICD-10: Know ICD-9 And ICD-10 Differences Beforehand!

ICD-10 deadline is looming. The fear of October 2014 has sent the healthcare industry in a tizzy with many fearing for its accurate compliance. The haphazard preparation of the diagnostic codes is a disaster waiting to happen. Before chalking out the ICD-10 action plan for your practice and to ensure a smooth transition from ICD-9 to ICD-10, it would be wise for you to know the most crucial differences between ICD-9 and ICD-10. Lack of Specifics ICD-9 has been marred by a glaring lack of specification, for instance, the same injuries on opposite limbs comprise the same code. This leads to complexity and gives room for confusion on different levels.

Published By: Steve Gray Stevenson | One Comment