Medicare Proposed Changes for 2020 Physician Fee Schedule

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is seeking to change its approach to paying clinicians for many office visits, incorporating recommendations and ideas from research done by the American Medical Association. Medicare also is pressing for greater disclosure to consumers about hospital prices and for the creation of incentives for dialysis centers to […]

Patients over Paperwork – CMS’s Approach to improve Patient Care

On 26th Sept 2019, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is taking action at President Trump’s direction to “cut the red tape,” bringing relief to America’s healthcare providers by reducing unnecessary burden, allowing them to focus on their top priority – patients. The Omnibus Burden Reduction (Conditions of Participation) Final Rule strengthens patient […]

AMA Announces 2021 E/M Changes

In 2018, Medicare announced its plans for revamping the Evaluation and Management coding structure and was met with a rapid response from the medical community, including the AMA and many other organizations. As a result, the Medicare changes implemented in 2019 were mostly documentation-related changes that generally benefited providers but were not necessarily accepted and […]

Basic Guidelines for Accurate Diagnosis Coding

Medical coding facilitates the billing process by bringing uniformity to the procedures through recognizable codes. Using standard diagnosis codes and procedure codes that are recognized by insurance companies, all medical practices, and relevant care related agencies, the medical coder will ensure that the insurance companies, commercial payer, or the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) […]

ICD-10-CM Guidelines for Coding and Reporting FY 2020 – Respiratory System

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), two departments within the U.S. Federal Government’s Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) provide the guidelines for coding and reporting using the International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-10-CM). These guidelines should be used as a […]

Diagnostic Medical Coding and Reporting Guidelines for Outpatient Services

Diagnostic Coding and Reporting Guidelines for Outpatient Services

These coding guidelines for outpatient diagnoses have been approved for use by hospitals/ providers in coding and reporting hospital-based Outpatient Services and provider-based office visits. The terms encounter and visit are often used interchangeably in describing Outpatient Services contacts and, therefore, appear together in these guidelines without distinguishing one from the other. Though the conventions […]

New Medicare Beneficiary Identifiers (MBI)

MBIs are required for all claims and transactions starting Jan. 1, 2020 (with few exceptions). Out with the old Health Insurance Claim Numbers (HICNs) and in with the new Medicare Beneficiary Identifiers (MBIs) as beneficiaries receive updated cards in advance of a Jan. 1, 2020, transition. As of Aug. 19, the Centers for Medicare & […]

New Patient vs Established Patient E/M Codes

New patient visits used to be easy to distinguish from those with established patients. A new patient was someone you had not previously seen or perhaps someone for whom you did not have a current medical record. Today, like so many other aspects of health care delivery, differentiating between new and established patients, and coding […]

Medical Record Documentation for E/M Services

Medical record documentation is required to record pertinent facts, findings, and observations about an individual’s health history including past and present illnesses, examinations, tests, treatments, and outcomes. The medical record chronologically documents the care of the patient and is an important element contributing to high-quality care. The descriptors for the levels of E/M services recognize […]

Appropriate Use Criteria Program

Background The Protecting Access to Medicare Act (PAMA) of 2014, Section 218(b), established a new program to increase the rate of appropriate advanced diagnostic imaging services provided to Medicare beneficiaries. Examples of such advanced imaging services include: computed tomography (CT) positron emission tomography (PET) nuclear medicine, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) Under this program, at […]

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