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ED Coding and Reimbursement Alert

Fast Exam FAQ:

Code Slowly or Risk Errors on 2-Part FAST Exam

Published on Tue Sep 28, 2010

This exam requires a pair of procedures -- and don't forget about that E/M, either.Coders that misfile a claim for a focused assessment with sonography in trauma (FAST) exam risk costing the practice twofold, as this procedure requires a pair of codes and a modifier to report correctly.Ride this FAQ to FAST exam success every time your ED provides the service:1.When would the ED physician perform a FAST exam? ED physicians perform FAST exams when they are evaluating patients for internal bleeding, "either hemo-peritoneum or in the pericardial sack surrounding the heart," explains Eli Berg, MD, FACEP, CEO of MRSI, an ED coding and billing company in Woburn, Mass.Common presentations associated with FAST exams include the following, according Jennifer K. Curry, clinical manager for the department of emergency medicine for UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Brunswick, N.J.: blunt trauma to the trunk/abdomen, as in a motor vehicleaccident (MVA)hypotension with [...]
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