Practice Management Alert

Watch out for CPT/Medicare differences when counting HPI elements.If you're not accurately accounting for the history of present illness (HPI) documented by your general surgeon, you could be missing out on opportunities to report level 4 or 5 E/M visits. Ensure you're not missing higher-pay possibilities by reviewing this guide to capturing HPI elements.Brush Up on What Qualifies as an HPI ElementHPI is one of the three parts comprising an outpatient E/M history. It describes the patient's present illness or problem, from the first sign/symptom to the current status, and typically drives your surgeon's decisions about the physical examination and treatment. For coding purposes, HPI is the chronological description of development of the present illness from first sign or symptom, or prior encounter, to present, explains Mary Falbo, MBA, CPC, president of Millennium Healthcare Consulting Inc. in Lansdale, Pa."The information gathered during the physical exam (PE) portion of a patient's [...]