Category: Blog

Take a Consumer-Oriented Approach to Your Billing Cycle

Take a Consumer-Oriented Approach to Your Billing Cycle

The Covid-19 pandemic is transforming how physicians practice medicine and bill for it. Physicians who take a consumer-oriented approach to their billing cycle may adapt the best, says John Behn III, MPA, president of Stroudwater Revenue Cycle Solutions and a principal of Stroudwater Associates, a national healthcare consulting firm based in Portland, Maine. “We’ve seen […]
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Nine Tips for Collecting Patient Balances

Nine Tips for Collecting Patient Balances

Practices have been creative during COVID-19 to ensure safe patient access: Telephone visits. Curbside immunizations. Drive-up virus testing. Even checking patients in for their in-office visits while they wait in the car. However, each of these scenarios poses one significant challenge: Collecting copayments and coinsurance. “With COVID-19, you’ve got to find ways to meaningfully engage […]
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2020 Coding Guide

2020 Coding Guide: Get Paid What You’re Owed

  There’s nothing more frustrating than rendering a service and not being paid. Sometimes the problem comes down to a single code. Nuanced coding rules are difficult to understand, and physicians aren’t taught this information in medical school. Still, health care is a business. As business owners, physicians need to know how they’re paid, including […]
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Clinicians Serving Socially At-Risk at a Disadvantage Under MIPS

Clinicians Serving Socially At-Risk at a Disadvantage Under MIPS

  Clinicians who served more patients with social risk factors such as low income performed worse in the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System’s inaugural payment year, and therefore, received unfavorable value-based reimbursement, according to a new study. The study recently published in Health Affairs found that out of 510,020 clinicians participating in the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) in […]
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Rules Are Changing_ The Impending Transition to ICD-11

Rules Are Changing: The Impending Transition to ICD-11

The World Health Organization (WHO) updates ICD codes every 10 years to improve clinical use and acknowledge innovations in healthcare. After the tumultuous transition to the 10th revision of the International Classification of Diseases, simply mentioning the phrase “ICD-11” is liable to strike fear in the hearts of revenue cycle professionals and healthcare providers across […]
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AMA Approves 2 New CPT Codes for COVID-19

AMA Approves 2 New CPT Codes for COVID-19

One of the codes, CPT Code 99072, is for reporting additional supplies used to mitigate spread of the virus. The American Medical Association (AMA) announced, Sept. 8, two new Category I CPT® codes to meet the changing needs of the healthcare industry brought about by the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE). The codes were approved […]
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Providers Confused by COVID-19 Coding, Claim Requirements

Providers Confused by COVID-19 Coding, Claim Requirements

Erratic claim volumes and confusion over COVID-19 coding and claim requirements are the top issues impacting revenue cycle operations, according to a new survey of financial leaders at US hospitals and health systems. Conducted through the Healthcare Financial Management Association’s (HFMA) Pulse Survey program, the survey commissioned by Alpha Health asked 587 chief financial officers and revenue cycle leaders […]
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See What’s New for ICD-10-CM

See What’s New for ICD-10-CM

Make sure your diagnosis coding is up to date by reviewing this chapter-by-chapter summary of the changes effective October 1. The future is here, and it brought diagnosis codes for hoverboard accidents. But that’s not all that’s changed in ICD-10-CM 2021, effective Oct. 1, 2020, through Sept. 30, 2021. Below are highlights from the 56-page […]
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