Pulmonology Coding Alert

If you answered all 3 questions correctly, youre a Part B ace. Now that youve tested yourself with the questions on the previous page, find out if your Part B skills are up to speed. Do Different Specialty Practices Count? Answer 1: The answer depends on whether the two pulmonology practices share a tax ID number, says Barbara J. Cobuzzi, MBA, CPC,CPC-H, CPCP, CENTC, CHCC, senior coder and auditor for The Coding Network and president of CRN Healthcare Solutions in Tinton Falls, N.J. CMS specifically states that the patient is a new patient when seen under the same tax ID number by a doctor of a new specialty, not a doctor who does not share a chart, Cobuzzi says. As a matter of fact, the pulmonology group may be sharing the chart with a different specialty. That is not the metric. If the physicians of the same specialty do not [...]