Dekolb Case Study

In the health care system, there are a lot of codes that help diagnose, treat, and discharge patients daily. Codes help nurses

For established patients receiving evaluation and management, providers may bill for these services using the CPT codes 99212, 99214. Choosing the correct code depends on the patient’s history, examination findings, and decision-making complexity. If complexity is found to be straightforward taking the provider less than 10 minutes, the billing code will be 99212 (Engle, 2014). If the history and examination findings result in moderate decision-making complexity, requiring more time from the practitioner and more diagnostic procedures the billing code will be 99214 (Engle, 2014). While, Ms. Trinidad does not encounter established patients in the emergency department, within my clinical hours, Ms. Rossow encountered several established patients of various levels of complexity. The billing code 99212 is appropriate to use for patients with low complexity, such as one of Ms. Rossow’s patients whose visit was due to elbow pain after a fall a week ago. Mrs. Rossow also managed the care of patients with a higher level of complexity such as a middle-aged male with a history of recent prostate cancer and a chief complaint of abdominal pain and fever.

"Medical coding professionals provide a key step in the medical billing process. Every time a patient receives professional health care in a physician’s office, hospital outpatient facility or ambulatory surgical center (ASC), the provider must document the services provided. The medical coder will abstract the information from the documentation, assign the appropriate codes, and create a claim to be paid, whether by a commercial payer, the patient, or CMS." (Aapccom, 2015) It is very important that billing coders have a full understanding of how to properly use medical codes to prevent denial of claims submitted.

Correct coding is when a claim is coded accurately for example the patient name is spelled correctly date of birth and sex are correct. The insurance payer will definitely know exactly what illness or injury the patient has and the method of treatment that was performed by the physician. A “clean” claim is one that does not require the payer to investigate or develop on a prepayment basis. This claim is filed in the timely filing period and passes all edits; and does not require external development. A clean claim must have all basic information to adjudicate the claim, and all required supporting documentation is attached with

Coding systems are used in the inpatient and outpatient settings for the classification of patient morbidity and mortality information for statistical use. The World Health Organization (WHO) developed the Ninth Revision, International Classification of Diseases (ICD-9) in the 1970s to track mortality statistics across the world. The International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM), is the adaptation the U.S. health system uses as a standard list of six-character alphanumeric codes to describe diagnoses. Globally utilizing a standardized system improves consistency in recording symptoms and diagnoses for payer claims reimbursement, as well as clinical research, and tracking purposes.

Read the article Diagnosis Coding and Medical Necessity: Rules and Reimbursement by Janis Cogley located on the AHIMA Body of Knowledge (BOK) at http://www.ahima.org.

Clark & Daughtrey was established in 1949 by Dr. Sam Clark and Dr. John Daughtrey. Currently they offer more than 20 distinct specialties of medicine, and have four locations, two in Lakeland, one in Sebring, and one in Winter Haven. Clark & Daughtrey is nationally accredited for its cardiology, oncology and radiology services. It is also known for its clinical laboratory and Polk Starlight Labs. They merged with Lakeland Regional Health (formerly Lakeland Regional Medical Center) on July 1, 2013.

The E/M code's is a big important part in this process. Being a health care professional, using the medical code's. like medicare, medicaid, other private insurance to be reimbursement. If not using the right code, the doctor office, hospital, and urgent care. Will lose a lot of money. So using the right cpt code's insurance companies, office, hospital, and urgent care can be reimbursement correct. Cause CPT code's are formed with 5 digits.

HIPAA requires two designate coding system to be used to report to private and public payers; this is HCPCS and ICD-10. This coding system is primarily used in the United States and it is used by healthcare providers, including physicians and hospitals. Icd-10 is useful for reporting inpatient and HCPCS is used for procedure reporting for outpatient service and they are both assigned to DRG group. Once the health service is performed, charge captures are slips that are posted to a patient’s account that is processed as a batch order system. The key to the ordering system and charge capture is the “charge code” which is then reflected each service, procedure, supply item or drugs in the chargemaster (CDM). Medical claims fall into one of two types: CMS

One of the greatest milestones in the United States health system is the use of electronic health records codes to ensure consistency in diagnosis and treatment procedures provided by physicians (Romano & Stafford 2011). The purpose of the case scenario of the sixteen year old female who visits the emergency department is to show how electronic health record coding is done and its impact on health reimbursement. The International Classification of Diseases (ICD) and the Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) codes are brought out well in the case study showing how they help in ensuring physician consistency in coding diagnosis and treatment procedures for the purpose of health reimbursement.

Up-Coding Services: Billing of government and private insurance programs is done using a complex series of numerical codes that identify the specific procedure or service being performed. These code sets can include: the American Medical Association’s Current Procedural Terminology (“CPT”) codes; Evaluation and Management (“E&M”) codes; Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System (“HCPCS”) codes; and International Classification of Disease (“ICD-9”) codes. Government health care programs assign a dollar amount it will pay for each procedure code. Up coding occurs when a health care provider submits of a claim for health care services, treatments, diagnostic tests or items that represent a more serious and more expensive procedure than that which actually was performed. Up coding can be a violation of the Federal False Claims Act.

CPT coding is to make sure the patient is getting billed for the correct services that was rendered. The Tabular list is a compilation of codes divided in different categories: Category I, II, III. Category I is the basis of CPT codes. Category II is used for tracing information. Category III is short term codes for collection of services rendered and procedures. There are 15 appendices that are used as guides. Modifiers help report situations. Locating codes are done by finding the main term. Assess information provided such as notes and terms. Locate the code. Guidelines are presented in the front of the sections. Special instructions help point out rules on how to use codes. Instructional notes are located in parentheses

In order for a patient’s insurance claim to go through correctly, you (as a medical assistant) need to code correctly. In the medical field coding is used to identify diagnoses patient’s have and services provided for them. The codes are then submitted to the patient’s insurance company, so the patient does not have to pay full price for services.

Correct coding is when a claim is coded accurately for example the patient name is spelled correctly date of birth and sex are correct. The insurance will definitely know exactly what illness or injury the patient has and the method of treatment that was performed by the physician. A “clean” claim is one that does not require the payer to investigate or develop on a prepayment basis. This claim is filed in the timely filing period and passes all edits; and does not require external development. A clean claim must have all basic information to adjudicate the claim, and all required supporting documentation is attached to the correct insurance. The required

Once data is collected it can be used by numerous health care providers and decision makers to monitor the health and needs of individuals and populations, as well as contribute to the analysis of the health system. Users including hospitals, health care practitioners, government, professional associations, researchers, media, students, and the general public. Having the correct and up-to-date coded data is critical, not only for the delivery of high-quality clinical care, but also for continuing health care, maintaining health care at an optimum level, for clinical and health service research, and planning and management of