Medical Billing Blog with Medical Billing & Coding Info & Articles
Welcome to the Medical Billing and Coding Blog
Welcome to the medical billing blog containing news and articles relating to medical billing, medical coding, ICD, HIPAA and practice management functions.
2004-2024 Celebrating 20 Years of Healthcare RCM Articles
The Blog Currently Contains 1,265+ Healthcare Articles
Take Advantage of the Preventative Care Medical Billing Increases
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services updated the healthcare payment amounts for certain medical procedures related to preventative care. The Outpatient Prospective Payment System (OPPS) has ruled in favor of the provider on a few financial issues. There are some medical billing changes implemented in the January 2006 update that will increase your revenue if you use them correctly. The main medical billing change issued by the Outpatient prospective payment system (OPPS) deals with preventative screening exams. Beginning in January 2006, Medicare will now reimburse at a higher rate for most preventative services provided. For instance: Many patients receive a “Welcome to Medicare” physical. Now, if hospitals provide this …
Medical Billing Guidelines Made Clear
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services can sometime seem a little vague in their guidelines. It is common knowledge in the medical billing world that a physician or non-physician practitioner must perform the history of present illness portion of an evaluation and management exam. However, this medical billing rule is nowhere to be found in the CMS guidelines. After examining the Center for Medicare & Medicaid’s guidelines, many people wonder if an ancillary staff member instead of a physician can take the history of present illness. Nowhere in the documentation does it prohibit this to be done. Most medical billing policies are spelled out exactly how they should be …
Are You Using the "G" Codes in Your Medical Billing Claims?
The American Medical Association (AMA) and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services are in a medical billing dispute. According to the American Medical Association, new “G” codes will be an unnecessary hassle. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services believe that these new medical billing codes are an improvement in the healthcare system. Administratively, the CMS- created “G” codes and this may become a headache for your medical practice. There is virtually no incentive to use these medical billing codes. 2006 is the requested Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services implementation date, but no one is jumping up and down for this change. For many businesses, the bottom line …
Medical Billing Techniques That Will Get Your Practice Audited
Millions of dollars each year are lost through outright fraudulent medical billing claims. Unscrupulous individuals deliberately file some of these medical billing claims, others are the result of an inexperienced coder in an office just getting it wrong. Either way, it can cost your practice big time in the form of time spent gathering information to answer an audit and in the form of some very stiff fines if there are improprieties found in your medical billing practices. The most common fraudulent medical billing practice is when services that were never rendered to a patient are billed. Since all charges are listed on an explanation of benefits form that is …
Medicare Medical Billing Error Decrease
Medicare has released the stats for 2005 regarding The Comprehensive Error Rate Testing (CERT) program implemented last year and it is showing that in the initial stages it has done some good for medical billing. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services heightened claim error awareness by initializing an error-testing program in 2005. In 2004, the error rate for medical billing was 10.1%. At the end of 2005, this year’s CMS error rate was 5.1%. This is nearly half the amount of errors this year than last year. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services attribute this improvement to the new CERT program. They believe that providers are inherently more …
