It's been two years since the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) joined ACDIS to offer the industry physician query instructions in Guidelines for Achieving a Compliant Query Practice, published in February 2013.
In an effort to accommodate the latest advances in technology and make the code set easier to modify for future technological changes, the AMA extensively overhauled codes for reporting drug testing in the 2015 CPT® Manual.
Most coding professionals have heard modifier -59 (distinct procedural service) referred to as a modifier of last resort and to be cautious in using this modifier.
Lately I've received a lot of questions from hospitals about how to determine when and if it's appropriate to report an E/M visit code on the same date of service as a scheduled procedure.
Taxonomy codes play a very important role in medical billing and credentialing for providers or group specialties.HIPAA-standard code sets specify a "standard" for transactions. In many cases, a taxonomy code is required to reimburse a claim; however, the reporting requirements for a taxonomy code may vary between insurance carriers and your third-party payers.
