Pediatric Coding Alert

Avoid pitfalls that leave you footing vaccine costs. To ethically recoup all your deserved pay for flu immunizations, check that you're following four best practices. A pediatric practice recently asked Pediatric Coding Alert for money-making tips as staff gear up for flu season. "In the past, we have had difficulty in just breaking even for the cost of the influenza vaccine," wrote the subscriber. "How can we be reimbursed by private insurances at the best rate of return?" she asked. Here's how to clear several coding pitfalls that can sink flu vaccination payments. "Make sure you code correct route, correct product, correct ICD-9," says Cathy Gray, RHIT, CCS, CPC-I, CCC, CGIC, with Henry Ford Health System in Detroit. 1: Avoid Losing $10 by Checking Preservative-Free Look at the manufacturer's box to verify that you're reporting the correct product code for the influenza product the patient is receiving. Preservative-free products, including Fluzone [...]