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Wellness programs help but workflow fixes chill physician burnout

07/16/2018

Physician burnout is a hot issue with a mountain of studies devoted to it. Health care organizations have begun to institute programs to relieve it, but some experts think you can make a big difference by simply making providers’ workflow more efficient, leaving them freer to practice medicine.

Revised remittance advice codes alert providers to QMB balance billing scenarios

07/16/2018

by: Richard Scott

Pay close attention to revised remittance advice remark codes (RARCs) pertaining to unsupported qualified Medicare beneficiary (QMB) billing or you could wind up getting sanctioned by the federal government.

‘Siri, violate HIPAA.’ Beware 7 real risks of virtual voice assistants.

07/16/2018

by: Marla Durben Hirsch

Voice-activated virtual assistants, such as Amazon’s Echo and Google Home, are convenient and helpful. They’re rising in popularity with doctors, but they can create legal headaches when used in a physician practice.

Use JW modifier for skin substitute biologics from a single package

07/16/2018

by: Richard Scott

Medical practices have recently been required to submit the modifier JW (Drug amount discarded/not administered to any patient) to denote the unused portion of certain drugs and biologics that come in single-use packages. You should now add skin substitute products to the list, as well.

Tie up your diabetic shoe reporting with correct ICD-10 codes, certifying statements

07/16/2018

by: Richard Scott

Size up your patients who have diabetes to see if they require special footwear or orthotics and ensure your documentation shows a required history of illness — and an appropriate diagnosis code — to get their care started on the right foot.

Modifier 25 used on non-E/M codes gets surprisingly forgiving denial rates

07/16/2018

by: Roy Edroso

Modifier 25 (Significant, separately identifiable E/M service) is, as the name implies, supposed to be used with E/M codes to distinguish the work done on those codes from other services that would ordinarily be bundled with them. But some non-E/M codes were logged with 25 on claims, and a few had surprisingly low denial rates.

MedPAC: Give E/M services a big raise and cut procedure, surgical payments

07/09/2018

by: Richard Scott

Practices that report a lot of outpatient E/M codes would have a big reason to smile if CMS heeds new advice from the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC). In its latest Report to Congress, the commission calls for a significant payment increase for office-based E/M services — suggesting a 30% pay boost is not out of line.

In-house or outboard, check these 7 CCM steps to see whether you can do it

07/09/2018

by: Roy Edroso

Many primary care providers balk at doing chronic care management (CCM) because of perceived difficulties, a recent study notes, but it can be both clinically and financially worth the effort to assess of your ability to take it on or to farm the job out.

Don’t let IV bags with protected health information trigger costly penalties

07/09/2018

by: Marla Durben Hirsch

Secure recycling or other waste bins used to dispose of materials with any patient protected health information (PHI) — including medication bottles and intravenous bags — because HHS’ inspectors are on the lookout for HIPAA disposal violations.

Coding a vaper who wants to quit: Don’t confuse vaping with smoking

07/09/2018

by: Roy Edroso

Question: How do I bill if a patient comes in and asks for help quitting e-cigarettes -- that is, vaping? The patient does not smoke regular cigarettes or any other traditional tobacco products; in fact, he says vaping helped him quit cigarettes.

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