Take the first few steps to coding and billing by joining us for a comprehensive workshop covering the fundamentals of coding and billing for foot and ankle surgeons. Learn the foundation of the coding and billing process from expert colleagues before taking the ACFAS Coding and Billing for the Foot and Ankle Surgeon course. This course is for residents, fellows, new practitioners, office staff of foot and ankle surgeons or anyone who wants to learn more of the basic coding and billing terminology and process. Plus, if you’re a resident and attending Residents Day in the morning the day of the event, this course is a great next step to learning more about coding and billing for your future practice and can be bundled in your pricing … read more
Tag: Coding
The Courage to Do the Right Thing by Caroline Fife
Nearly 200 years ago, the brilliant French historian Alexis de Tocqueville traveled the fledgling United States and observed that in lieu of hereditary wealth and aristocracy, we were building a society on individualism, market capitalism, and honoring the hard-working common man. However, in his 1835 book, he cautioned that laws could never be a substitute for public morality and that such a society was less endangered by “the great profligacy of a few”, but by the “laxity of morals amongst all.” Those words were prophetic. Individualism and market capitalism have enabled us to create the most technologically advanced healthcare system in the world, but Medicare will be bankrupt in less than 10 years. Although there are a lot of reasons for this dire situation, they include “a laxity of morals amongst all and the great profligacy of a few.” … read more
How Does Your Documentation Measure Up to Medicare Standards? Debridement 101
Information regarding coding, coverage, and payment is provided as a service to our readers. Every effort has been made to ensure accuracy. However, HMP and the author do not represent, guarantee, or warranty that coding, coverage, and payment information is error-free and/or that payment will be received.
To our readers: This article is the beginning of a series of articles on proper documentation practices for wound care. In this series, I will discuss different topics in wound care documentation practices that I have seen in my travels and found to be insufficient in light … read more
Keys To Coding When You Are Seeing Patients In Nursing Facilities
The CPT codes 99304–99306 cover initial nursing facility care. Yes, podiatrists can absolutely submit initial nursing facility evaluation and management (E/M) codes for Medicare patients.
Medicare does not recognize consultation codes. When Medicare stopped recognizing consultation codes on January 1, 2010, it then instructed specialists, including podiatrists, to use the initial nursing facility codes when seeing a nursing facility patient for the first time during that patient’s admission. Podiatrists should use initial nursing facility codes if that encounter qualified for what the facility would consider a “consult” and even if the specialist was not the admitting/primary doctor. Since there are now multiple doctors using those initial encounter codes, the admitting/primary doctor must use an “AI” modifier on the initial E/M encounter.
This change did not alter the fact that in order to submit any E/M code, one must meet the thresholds of complexity for that code. Complexity refers to the key elements of E/M coding (history, exam, decision making) in what you performed, what you documented and what was medically necessary … read more