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General Surgery Coding Alert

Practice Management:

Smash 4 Common Myths to Overcome MUE Claims Denials

Published on Tue Jun 14, 2011

Hint: You can't report more than 3 abdominal needle biopsies per day.If you're getting mystery Medicare denials, you could be running up against medically unlikely edits (MUEs). Designed to prevent overpayments caused by gross billing errors (usually a result of clerical or billing systems' mistakes), MUEs often confuse even veteran general surgery coders.Ensure you're not letting MUEs wreak havoc on your practice's coding and reimbursement by uncovering the truth about four aspects of these edits.Myth 1: MUE Edits Don't Affect Your PracticeSome practices feel that they don't need to worry about MUEs.Reality: Any practice filing a claim with Medicare should know what MUEs are and how they work. "They limit the frequency a CPT® code can be used," says Chandra L. Hines, business office manager at a practice in Raleigh, N.C. "We need to become aware of the denials and not let every denial go because the insurance company said [...]
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