Ob-Gyn Coding Alert

Presented by Melanie Witt, PN, CPC, MA

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The speaker for the teleconference, Melanie Witt, RN, CPC, MA, is an independent coding education consultant and was active in ACOG for many years. She is a well-known speaker and recognized expert in the area of coding and reimbursement for ob-gyn services. In addition, Ms. Witt is the consulting editor for Ob-Gyn Coding Alert. Thank you.  I welcome you all to the audio-conference this morning.  Today, we are going to talk about Pap smears and I plan on discussing this subject in great deal of detail, but before we get started I thought maybe I would give you a quick overview of what we are going to go over today, so that you will hopefully know whether or not some of your questions will be answered during the presentation.  Because I think that history is important, I want to start with the history behind the Pap test and then move onto some information about cervical anatomy and the effectiveness of the Pap smear.  I think that those are important things for the coders to know as well in addition to just how to code for them and also on a personal note because most of us listening today are women, I think it is important that we understand the importance of this particular screening test as it is life saving.  Then, I will be describing the basic procedure and some other related techniques that go along with this and then we will go over some of the recommendations for the frequency of the test and briefly look at that difference between the screening and the diagnostic test. In the last half of the presentation, I plan on going over diagnostic coding, which is very important for all of us to get these things paid, and then go onto to look into how a lab actually bills for Pap smear.  Now some of you who are strictly office, you can go to sleep during this portion of the talk if you like and then perk up at the end when we finally wind up for the important point for all of us: how can a physician bill for a Pap [...]