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A Medicare contractor is expanding the range of place of service (POS) codes they'll accept on advance care planning codes -- and will reverse denials made on those grounds.

In 2015, providers undercoded their way out of $1.2 billion, a large portion of which was tied to underreporting established-patient office visits related to E/M codes 99211-99215.
Physicians will have another way to report removing ear wax in 2016 now that surgical code 69209 (Removal impacted cerumen irrigation/lavage, unilateral) joins higher level 69210 (Removal impacted cerumen requiring instrumentation, unilateral) in the auditory system section.
Come 2016, be prepared to adjust your billing protocol for transitional care management (TCM) services, reflected in codes 99495 and 99496.
Earlier I mentioned on the Editor's Blog that TrailBlazer had uncovered some denial rates on established E/M services that so staggeringly high that some consultants voiced concerns about the carrier being too strict. Seeing as how established E/Ms are staple services for primary care practices and plenty of specialties, I wrote a Part B News story about combating the errors TrailBlazer claimed to be seeing en masse across its sample of 200 randomly chosen claims across six states.

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