As you read this article, it will be helpful if you have the ICD-10-CM book in front of you. You can download a pdf copy here. And even if you don’t download the entire book, download the Official Guidelines instead. There are four cooperating parties to ICD-10-CM. They publish and update the official guidelines for […]
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Spotlight on up-to-date coding
The First Element of MDM: Number and Complexity of Problems Addressed
E/M elements for MDM There are three elements in medical decision-making and this article describes the first of three When selecting a level of service based on medical decision-making two of the three elements are required CPT® has developed definitions for many of the components in the MDM chart. The examples listed in the definitions […]
The Third Element of MDM: Risk of Complications
The third element of MDM: risk of complications and/or morbidity or mortality of patient management at the encounter Coding for E/M services There are three elements in medical decision-making and this article describes the third, the risk of complications and/or morbidity or mortality related to patient management When selecting a level of service based on […]
The Second Element of MDM: Amount and/or Complexity of Data
There are three elements in medical decision-making and this article describes the second, arguably, the most complex of the three elements When selecting a level of service based on medical decision-making two of the three elements are required CPT® has developed definitions for many of the components in the MDM chart. This article describes the definitions […]
Critical Care Services
Definition and Explanation of Critical Care Service Definition: Coding service for caring for a critically ill or injured patient Explanation: Critical care has high relative value units and payments so it’s important to know the coding rules. This article describes what can be included in the time of critical care what can’t be included, and […]
Commonly Performed Procedures in Primary Care
These reference sheets for minor procedures include common CPT® codes, descriptions, current work and non-facility RVUs, and global days for quick reference. The first chart includes codes 10060-11443, the second 11600-17111, and the third 20550-54056.
Incident To Services – Medicare
Medicare has specific rules for billing for nurse practitioners and physician assistants and other office staff incident to a physician services in an office. This article includes: Description, explanation and codes for incident-to services Billing and coding rules Brief video overview Enrollment of non-physician practitioners (NPPs) for incident-to billing See our Medicare Incident-to and Shared […]
Coding for Prolonged Services: CPT and HCPCS Codes
Common rules: Prolonged services codes are add-on codes to the highest level E/M services in certain categories. In order to use prolonged care, the primary code must be selected based on time. This is in the CPT and HCPCS definition of prolonged services. Prolonged services codes may only be added to the highest-level code in […]
Nursing Facility Visits
Definition Nursing facility visits are Evaluation and Management services provided in a skilled nursing facility or a long term nursing facility. Explanation Only a physician may perform an initial nursing facility service in a SNF. This includes admissions and re-admissions. In an NF, a non-physician practitioner (NPP) who is not employed by the NF may […]
Preventive Medicine Services – Medicare
Medicare has very specific requirements for preventive services. What can you bill, what must you document? This article covers all the bases including tips for billing the Welcome to Medicare and Annual and Subsequent Wellness Visits. More tips for preventive medicine and split visits can be found here. See also Q&A from the Preventive Medicine […]
Coding Multiple Procedures | Examples with Modifiers
Biopsies and lesion destruction codes are often performed at the same patient visit. This leads to questions about bundling and modifiers. There are two steps to billing these correctly and avoiding denials: Check the total RVU values Check the NCCI edits. There is a step-by-step procedure for coding multiple procedures at the end of this […]
E/M Frequency Data for Hospitalists
Hospitalists became a recognized specialty by CMS starting in 2017, and we now have frequency E/M data for the specialty. There are probably still physicians who have not switched their specialty designation. Physicians self-elect their specialty designation with Medicare and other payers. Many hospitalists are family medicine or internal medicine physicians by training, working as […]
E/M Frequency Data for Surgical Specialties
CMS releases E/M frequency data annually. A physician self-elects their specialty designation when enrolling with Medicare. Unfortunately, there aren’t specialty designations for breast, bariatrics, or trauma surgery, and those surgeons are usually enrolled using the category for general surgery. There are specialty designations for vascular surgery, plastic surgery, thoracic, and surgical oncology. The data below […]
E/M Frequency Data for Psychiatrists
CMS releases E/M frequency data annually. A physician self-elects their specialty designation when enrolling with Medicare. This is the data for psychiatrists. The data below is from 2023 released in late 2024. Office services Psychiatry New OV 2023 99201* 0% 99202 0.59% 99203 6.82% 99204 40.09% 99205 52.50% Established office visits 2023 99211 0.83% 99212 […]
E/M Frequency Data for Infectious Disease, Pulmonary Medicine and Cardiology
CMS releases E/M frequency data annually. A physician self-elects their specialty designation when enrolling with Medicare. Infectious disease, pulmonary medicine and cardiology are all specialties with active inpatient services, and of course, busy office services. That’s why I’ve elected to show them together. The data below is from 2023, released in late 2024. Office services […]
Multiple E/M Services in the Same Calendar Day
The AMA has added a new subsection in the 2024 E/M section addressing how to report E/M services when there are multiple encounters in the same day. (Pages 6 and 7) According to CPT Changes 2024 An Insider’s View, the reason for this was to provide clarification for when multiple E/M services were performed on […]
Psychiatric Collaborative Care Management Services
This resource covers Psychiatric Collaborative Care Management Services 99492, 99493, 99494 and
Care Management for Behavioral Health 99484.
Teaching Physician – Primary Care Exception
CMS updated the teaching physician rules in 2019, and this article reflects the change. On April 26, 2019 CMS released Transmittal 4283. The transmittal primarily addresses E/M services, but also amends the section of the manual related to the primary care exception. The changes to the primary care section were mostly wording updates. Those rules […]
Two Visits for the Price of One? | Multiple Medical Visits on the Same Day
Patients often schedule two medical appointments on the same day with physicians of different specialties. It’s convenient for them. It saves travel time. It may mean the patient or a family member only needs to take one day off work. Can a multi-specialty practice be paid for two visits, when the physicians/non-physician practitioners (NPPs) practice […]
What is a Coverage Policy?
National Coverage Determinations (NCD) and Local Coverage Determinations (LCD) are Medicare’s coverage policies that describe medical necessity for certain services. Private payers publish their own coverage policies on their Web sites. When services are denied due to medical necessity, no pre-authorization, failing to try less expensive or invasive treatments, this is a good indication there […]
Compliance Issues in ICD-10 Coding for Risk Based Contracts and HCCs
Everyone loves to read the general guidelines at the front of the ICD-10 book, right? No? Well, here’s an important excerpt. “Code all documented conditions, which coexist at the time of the visit that require or affect patient care or treatment. (Do not code conditions, which no longer exist).” Most of the articles I’ve written […]
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