Profit margin figures seal agencies’ fate with commission. Despite the significant hit that home health agencies have taken from the pandemic, an advisory body to Congress wants Medicare to slash home health payment rates by 5 percent next year. The [...]
Plan your post-pandemic compliance accordingly. If your Part B practice is struggling under the yoke of COVID-19, there’s good news. The feds have eased up on some Stark Law requirements with 18 blanket waivers that address remuneration and self-referrals. Review [...]
Tip: Plan ahead for your post-COVID-19 compliance transition. During the best of times, many find keeping compliant with fraud and abuse regulations and all their nuances challenging. In the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, the feds have lifted some sanctions [...]
Prepare for MIPS and APMs. Fee for service is on the way out, and the Merit Based Incentive Program System (MIPS) is the wave of the future for Medicare pay. MIPS comes compliments of the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization [...]
Question: A patient visited our podiatrist with a complaint of sharp burning pain in the third toe of the left foot, which increases while walking. Our physician diagnosed Morton’s neuroma and administered an injection for relief. How should I code the [...]
Hint: Make sure your primary diagnosis matches the procedure codes. You may be an expert at podiatry codes but you could still be mystified when it comes coding and billing peripheral nerve surgeries for conditions such as tarsal tunnel and [...]
Check CMS’s complete list for your practice. Depending on the type of procedures your general surgeons routinely perform, a host of different quality measures might help you avoid the coming penalties for non-participation in Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS). For [...]
Question: What is the correct ICD-9 code for abdominal nerve entrapment used to treat patients who have had previous abdominal surgery and now suffer chronic pain? Louisiana Subscriber Answer: The ICD-9 alphabetic index directs you from “entrapment, nerve” to “see Neuropathy, entrapment.” [...]
Question: What is the correct ICD-9 code for abdominal nerve entrapment used to treat patients who have had previous abdominal surgery and now suffer chronic pain? Louisiana Subscriber Answer: The ICD-9 alphabetic index directs you from “entrapment, nerve” to “see Neuropathy, [...]
Question: Which diagnosis applies to sympathetically maintained pain? Is it the same as reflex sympathetic dystrophy? New Jersey Subscriber Answer: Yes, sympathetically maintained pain (SMP) and reflex sympathetic dystrophy (RSD) are often used interchangeably. But there’s a third term you need to [...]
