Cardiology Coding Alert

Presented by Jim Collins, CPC, CHCC

The following supplement to Cardiology Coding Alert is the transcript of a teleconference presented by The Coding Institute. To obtain the slides for the conference, please log on to our Online Subscription System at http://codinginstitute.com/login and open the PDF version of the current issue, and the slides will be contained therein. If you're not sure how to use the Online Subscription System or need help opening the issue, please contact our customer service department at 1-800-508-2582 or service@medville.com, and one of our representatives will be able to assist you.

The speaker for the teleconference, Jim Collins, CPC, CHCC, is the Chief Executive Officer of the Cardiology Coalition, a professional society dedicated to advocacy efforts for cardiologists and the billing proficiency of cardiology practices.  Mr. Collins has over twelve years experience as a physician reimbursement consultant and limits his practice to cardiology related issues (procedural auditing, E&M auditing, revenue cycle optimization, staff training and physician training.) He is the Consulting Editor of Cardiology Coding Alert and is a seasoned national speaker on cardiology documentation and reimbursement. Thank you Mandy and good morning to everybody out there listening in.  This is a two-hour conference that is going to be geared specifically to peripheral vascular billing and we are going to try to take you through all of the very critical issues that you need to understand in peripheral vascular.  Of course with this topic, we could spend 2 or 3 days on it if we really wanted to get into the little specifics about each of the difference types of services that could be provided and coverage issues and the correct coding initiative edits and so on.  It is really not going to be possible in a two hour conference, but we should be able to cover everything that you need to really get up to speed on accurate coding of these services, point you in the right direction and give you some guidance that you can use to code these services to the maximum allowed amount and also within all the applicable regulations. 

Understanding The Clinical Side Can Make Coders' Work Easier

With peripheral vascular services, I think it is critically important that people understand a little bit about the clinical side of these services as far as what the doctor is doing and why they are doing it, because when billing out these operative reports and reading through them to try to assign codes, it is very easy to get lost in the process.  Understanding a little bit about the clinical side should help you out considerably.  So, the first thing I want to stress is what peripheral vascular disease is.  In short, it is the [...]