Billing and Collections: Rules to Code By
To get paid more — and faster — focus on these key areas.
By Pamela Moore Debbie Alverson’s team bills for 54 providers. That’s about 575 claims a day, says the COO of Cornerstone Medical Management. With all that experience, you’d think they’d have coding down cold.
But Alverson says even they get overwhelmed. “Coding in today’s world is very complex, and the coding rules are very complex, and it’s very overwhelming to keep up with all the changes. When you are keying all these things, and the physicians are rushing around, and patients are waiting … you are going to make mistakes.”
Trouble is, every mistake means lost or delayed revenue. Every bounced claim or denial means even more work for your staff, work that they sometimes never get around to doing.
The solution? Send out claims that get paid the first time, every time.
How is that possible? Well, at the very least, correct common mistakes in E&M coding, using modifiers, and coordinate CPT and ICD-9 codes — the hot spots for errors in most practices. Continued...
