The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) have announced the release of two proposed rules designed to improve care delivery and experience and to enhance the sharing of electronic health information.
It has been a long time since The Joint Commission has published frequently asked questions (FAQ), which serve as a great resource for clarification of standards and elements of performance. Generally, FAQs originate with questions from the field that continue to be asked over time.
Conducting pre-billing audits can be challenging, but when done correctly, it can save organizations from spending time recoding and rebilling claims that payers deny. These audits can be conducted on the front end, in both inpatient and outpatient settings, once records have been coded.
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.
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.
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.
