Category: Blog

Code for Critical Care

The Best Way to Code for Critical Care

Key: Amount of time spent with the patient indicates which code to use. Coding for physician inpatient services, especially critical care, is deceptively straightforward. The reality is that the details of each code requirement can complicate things to the point of complete confusion. Despite the challenges, there are specific strategies you can use to correctly […]
Learn More
3 Coding Tips From Medical Bill Consultants’ CEO

3 Coding Tips From Medical Bill Consultants’ CEO

Beth Morgan, president and CEO of Medical Bill Consultants, has over 40 years of experience coding and billing for various providers and facilities. She provided these three tips: Read the notes carefully. If coders and billers don’t read notes carefully, they might miss a key component that the provider also missed. For example, if the […]
Learn More
New Medicare Cards Are Coming

New Medicare Cards Are Coming

The Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) of 2015, requires us to remove Social Security Numbers (SSNs) from all Medicare cards by April 2019. A new Medicare Beneficiary Identifier (MBI) will replace the SSN-based Health Insurance Claim Number (HICN) on the new Medicare cards for Medicare transactions like billing, eligibility status, and claim status. The […]
Learn More

CODING: New FESS Codes for 2018

2018 brings us new functional endoscopic sinus surgery codes (FESS) which bundle a total ethmoidectomy with both a frontal sinusotomy and a sphenoidotomy with and without removal of tissue.  2018 CPT® also provides a new bundled code for a frontal and sphenoid endoscopic balloon dilation. On initial review of these new codes and the instructions […]
Learn More
CMS Releases Final OPPS Rule

CMS Releases Final OPPS Rule For 2018: 8 Things To Know

CMS has released its final 2018 Medicare Outpatient Prospective Payment System rule, which cuts payments to hospitals under the 340B Drug Pricing Program and authorizes Medicare to reimburse for knee replacement surgeries performed in outpatient facilities. Here are eight things to know about the 1,133-page final rule. Payment Update: CMS will increase OPPS rates by […]
Learn More

Blue Shield to Require Electronic Claim Submission

On October 26, Blue Shield of California notified physicians that for new or renewing provider agreements for 2018, it will begin requiring practices to submit their claims electronically. All claims, with the exception of those with an accompanying medical record, will be required to be submitted via electronic data interchange (EDI). A complete list of […]
Learn More
5 Common Remark Codes For The CO16 Denial

5 Common Remark Codes For The CO16 Denial

co16 denial code description: The CO16 denial code is used in medical billing to indicate that a claim has been denied because it lacks necessary information or contains errors. It falls under the category of “Contractual Obligation” (CO) denials, which means the responsibility falls on the provider to fix the issue and resubmit the claim. […]
Learn More
x