Posts Tagged ‘Billing’

Medical coding and the American Academy of Professional Coders (AAPC) were featured in an introductory segment of the popular Chicago Public Radio show This American Life, the weekend of Oct. 17, in its program “Someone Else’s Money” — the second part of the show’s look at the American health care system. Host Ira Glass tried to “decode” coding, explaining the various coding systems and pointing out examples of codes and the apparent lack of logic in their development and assignment. 

You can download the show via the program’s Web site. The program is distributed by Public Media International and can be heard on most National Public Radio and independent stations.

Some argue that peripheral nerve blocks (PNBs) have too many setbacks to make them a viable option for post-operative pain management. Others disagree. Brian Williams, MD, and Steven Orebaugh, MD, take a stab at “Dispelling 8 Peripheral Nerve Block Myths,” in the January 2009 online edition of Outpatient Surgery magazine. The article refers to another informative article, “The Economics of Peripheral Nerve Blocks,” featured in the March 2008 online edition of Outpatient Surgery.

Millions of dollars in potential revenue is lost every year due to billing errors, such as under-pricing, missed charges, under-coding, and unreimbursed claims. In essence, this is like offering medical services for free.

“As much as 3 to 5 percent of annual practice revenue is lot because the practice simply did not bill for services and procedures that the physicians performed,” said National Advisory Board President Deborah Grider, CPC, CPC-H, CPC-P, CPC-E/M, CPC-I, CCS, CCS-P (Physicians Practice, November 2008). Read more »

Fine tuning the coding, billing, and collections processes is essential.

Even well seasoned coders and billers may not know the nuances of coding and billing every service to different payers with different plans. To help you set rules and standards and effectively communicate to staff for a working billing infrastructure, check out UVA Health’s Physicians Practice Pearls on Coding “Set Up a Strong Billing Infrastructure” by Bill Dacey, CPC, MBA, MHA.