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Coding

Avoid Separate Imaging with Thoracentesis

Thoracentesis is a puncture made between the ribs into the pleural cavity to aspirate or remove accumulated fluid (pleural effusion) from the chest cavity. A needle attached to a syringe is introduced through the skin and chest wall until it penetrates th... Read More >>

May 7th, 2013

HCPro: Learn the foreign language of ICD-10-PCS California Medical Association: Avoid Common POS Errors

Auditing

CMS Proposes Inpatient Admissions Policy Change

In a proposed rule published in the Federal Register May 10, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) clarifies the rules governing physician orders of hospital inpatient admissions for payment under Medicare Part A. If finalized, hospital i... Read More >>

May 21st, 2013

Advance: Wolves at the Door ICD-10-CM: No Delay This Time

Practice Management

Five Practices to Improve Your Registration

To compete in today’s tough and ever-changing environment, focus on some of the simplest steps to secure payment for services. Physician practices continue to lag behind other healthcare-related industries in handling patient registration. Dental... Read More >>

April 19th, 2013

Protect Your Practice from Reimbursement Rates and Abusive Payment Tactics Culture Development: Your Most Important ROI

Compliance

Get the Most Out of Locum Tenens Physicians

Using locum tenens physicians to fill in for regular physicians may cost your practice instead of helping it if you don’t understand how to bill for their services. To ensure you get paid and stay in compliance, you must adhere to Medicare and com... Read More >>

April 19th, 2013

Keep Your Patients Safe from Banned Healthcare Workers Stop Waving Compliance Red Flags

Billing

The Top 3 Reasons Your Claims Get Denied

There are plenty of reasons an insurer might deny your claims, but the most common billing errors are also the simplest and easiest to correct. Here are the top 3: 1. Incorrect and/or incomplete patient identifier information (e.g., name spelled incorr... Read More >>

April 16th, 2013

Distinguish Between Screening and Diagnostic Fecal Occult Blood Testing Physicians Practice: How to Ensure Accurate Medical Coding

News

Advance: Appending Modifiers 58, 78, and 79

Modifiers identify procedures that have been altered in some way without changing the fundamental components. AAPC's National Advisory Board Member Relations Officer, Nancy Clark, CPC, CPB, CPMA, CPC-I, recently penned an article for Advance for Health In... Read More >>

June 1st, 2013

Medical Economics: Cracking the code CMS Releases Clarification on Reporting External Cause Codes and Unspecified Codes