Avoid These Common Coding Mistakes in Your Family Practice with a Medical Billing Partner

Operating costs was listed as the top concern for medical practices in 2013; however, billing and payment hurdles also kept physicians on their toes. Family practitioners also raced in order to keep up with changes in CPT codes that proved extremely challenging, especially for providers with weak profit margins.

Majority of revenue for a typical family practice comes from submission of ICD-9 and CPT codes to third party payers. Therefore, it becomes essential to code accurately for every single service in order to receive timely payments during family practice billing. Coders while carrying out family practice billing need to have a firm grasp on standard primary care coding because unlike other specialities, family practices keep facing variety of patient problems.

Time is required to study the CPT manual and documentation guidelines for accurate coding for error free family practice billing. An updated CPT manual will have to be ordered every year to make providers and coders aware of new, revised and deleted codes.

Common coding mistakes that can cost your family practice:

Here are few coding and billing procedures that coders should not avoid at any cost in order to ensure accuracy in claim submission during family practice billing:

• Encounter forms should be up-to-date or else your practice can lose various opportunities to obtain revenue. This task is time consuming but extremely vital for error-free coding
• Medical necessity of services being offered by your practice should be substantiated as payers are becoming increasingly concerned for the same
• It is important for physicians to get involved with billers and coders in selection of ICD-9 codes, codes valid for a visit or services linking the codes to associated CPT codes
• Appropriate levels of E/M services should be selected and documented to ensure error-free coding
• Coders will have to learn the rules of using modifiers because they can be the difference between denials, full reimbursement or reduced payments
• Charges should be captured for every offered service

How can you achieve error-free coding?

Family practice physicians can improve the revenue cycle management of their practice with correct CPT coding. Staying up-to-date with the coding changes related to family practice billing is a tedious task but it cannot be avoided if you want to prevent revenue loss and fraud and abuse concerns.

Due to time constraint, family practice providers are seeking assistance from a medical billing partner. Medical billing companies have a team of well-trained certified coders who are experienced in handling coding challenges of different specialties.

Medicalbillersandcoders.com has been helping family practices across 50 states in the US overcome family practice billing and coding challenges. We have the largest consortium of billers and coders trained for handling a range of activities involved in family practice billing and coding.

From timely claim submission to follow-ups with insurance companies, the expert team at MBC handles all the vital family practice billing tasks, leaving sufficient time for physicians to concentrate on patient care. Our coders are certified and they use the latest technology to ensure that your practice gets paid for every offered service. You can either opt for the entire suite of billing and coding services from MBC or get customized services as per your requirements.

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Published By - Medical Billers and Coders
Published Date - Mar-04-2014 Back