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General Surgery Coding Alert

You Be the Coder:

Where Does 'Observation' Take Place?

Published on Mon Jun 25, 2007

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General Surgery Coding Alert

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Know When to Treat 'Separate Procedures' Separately
Turn to NCCI for guidance if you-re in doubt about a bundle The true meaning [...]

Share the E/M Work, Enjoy Full E/M Payment
Physician must see the patient if there's a new problem A -shared visit- describes an [...]

Shared Visits Offer Several Advantages
You can use Medicare's shared-visit provision when your NPPs lend your physicians a helping hand [...]

You Be the Coder:
Where Does 'Observation' Take Place?
Question: Our surgeon performed an observation service for a patient who was not in the [...]

Reader Questions:
Avoid Same-Time Biopsy and Excision
Question: Can we report a biopsy and excision of the same lesion during the same [...]

Reader Questions:
Burn Severity Is Important to Dx Accuracy
Question: I know that it's important to know a burn's severity when assigning a diagnosis [...]

Reader Questions:
Treat Foot FBRs Differently Than Soft-Tissue FBRs
Question: During an unrelated visit, the surgeon performed simple foreign-body removal (FBR) on a patient [...]

Reader Questions:
1 Element Can Count Twice for E/M Status
Question: When coding E/M services, can we count the same element twice, for instance, as [...]

Reader Questions:
Call on Up to 8 ICD-9 Codes, When Necessary
Question: I was recently told that we can use no more than four diagnosis codes [...]

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