Duodenal ulcer (532)

Question: What is the difference between carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) and wrist pain? Also, how should I report ICD-10 codes for each condition? AAPC Forum Subscriber Answer: Generally, pain in the wrist primarily involves pain in the wrist. The pain is localized [...]

Question: Encounter notes indicate that the physician treated a patient with “blepharoconjunctivitis R eye.” How is blepharoconjunctivitis different from conjunctivitis, and how do I choose a diagnosis code for this condition? New York Subscriber Answer: According to the University of [...]

Hospice audits get a second spotlight. If you were hoping the HHS Office of Inspector General’s focus on hospice fraud scrutiny would be in your rearview, that’s not the case quite yet. In its new semiannual report to Congress, the [...]

Report to Congress conveniently omits the fact that OIG had to walk back nearly half of its noncompliant determinations in HHA audits. For anybody who missed the HHS Office of Inspector General’s slew of hospice audit reports this year, they [...]

Telehealth misuse is now on the agency’s radar screen. Over the last year, the feds have ramped up their enforcement against those who aim to buck the Medicare system. And a new release suggests fraudsters will find themselves charged, excluded, [...]

Payer policies will differ for these services. When a patient reports to the PM specialist for a paravertebral facet joint injection in the cervical/thoracic or lumbar/sacral areas, you'll report the service with one or more of the following codes, depending [...]

Remember, not all payers have identical approved diagnoses. When a patient reports to the PM specialist for a paravertebral facet joint injection in the cervical/thoracic or lumbar/sacral areas, you'll report the service with one or more of the following codes, [...]

Question: In our ASC, we are have seen some denials for our 66982 claims. Could you walk us through the proper use of this code? Georgia Subscriber Answer: The code you mention is 66982 (Extracapsular cataract removal with insertion of [...]

Hint: Think in terms of encounter status for new revisions. With only a few weeks until the first official update to ICD-10 goes into effect, here’s one last “sneak peek” at the changes you can probably expect to see for [...]

October revisions will keep the denials at a minimum. Remember how you had thought you had lost a code for when a laparoscopic surgery becomes an open one? ICD-10 will resolve this as of October 1, when you’ll add Z53.31 [...]