CMS issued SE1609 to clarify long-standing policy concerning external infusion pumps. Apparently, both freestanding physician offices and outpatient hospital departments were treating external pumps as an item of durable medical equipment, even when the physician or hospital department set up the pump on the patient, supplied the drug, and programmed the infusion rate and dose into the pump.
We have trouble billing multiple units of injections and infusions—mostly CPT add-on codes 96375 (injection, each additional sequential intravenous push of a new substance/drug) and 96376 (injection, each additional sequential intravenous push of the same substance/drug provided in a facility)—that are done during observation stays and exceed the medically unlikely edits number. What is the correct way to bill these and get paid?
I've noticed some conflicting information in CPT Assistant and NCCI edits for CPT code 29874 (knee arthroscopy with removal of loose/foreign body). Do the NCCI edits override the advice in CPT Assistant?
CMS has released the final 2018 ICD-10-CM codes to be implemented October 1, with hundreds of changes from the version released in the 2018 IPPS proposed rule.
When CMS introduced Hierarchical Condition Categories (HCC) with risk-adjusted scores, Ochsner Health System began efforts to educate providers and improve documentation across its many facilities.
Tasked with the impossible—reviewing 100% of charges before they go out the door—the revenue integrity department at Yale New Haven Health in New Haven, Connecticut, knows the importance of having a reliable staff to get the job done right.
In ICD-10-CM, defining, diagnosing, and documenting the various forms of altered mental status and their underlying causes remains an ongoing challenge for physicians and their facilities.
Accurate clinical documentation is the bedrock of the legal medical record, billing, and coding. It is also the most complex and vulnerable part of the revenue cycle.
With value-based reimbursement, providers now must shoulder the health of the patient no matter where the patient receives care. The ability to share patient information seamlessly between these entities using interoperable technology is the next evolution of healthcare.
Ochsner Clinic Foundation began its ambulatory clinical documentation excellence journey in 2004, when Medicare implemented its Hierarchical Condition Categories (HCC). Since HCCs affect patients’ Risk Adjustment Factor scores, and ultimately reimbursement for the care required to treat sicker patients, Ochsner needed to determine the best way to ensure annual HCC capture for all patients across its vast system.
