Questions On Correct Billing And Coding

Apply accurate, complete, and consistent coding practices for the production of high-quality of healthcare data.

5. You work in a physician’s office performing billing. You notice that guidelines haven’t been followed accurately in completing the claim form. What will happen if you don’t correct the claim form?

"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.

-Inpatient coders have certifications allowing them to work exclusively for hospitals or facilities. An expertise in medical record review is a must, along with an up to date status with coding rule changes, regulations and issues for medical coding, reimbursements and compliance under MS-DRG and Inpatient Prospective Payment Systems (IPPS). Coders should have experience as well as expert knowledge in abstracting information from medical records for ICD-9CM vol. 1-3, specialized payment in MS-DRG and IPPS.

Responsible coder collects post and manages account payments, submitting claims and keeping in touch with insurance companies. If patient information is coded incorrectly or incomplete it could leave an impact that can be brought to a claim. Inaccuracy in patient information can leads to denials, none payment and investigation. It is important to get all the details right by verifying insurance coverage properly. Make sure that the patient’s name is spelled correctly, date of birth and sex of patient are correct; and most important be sure that the policy number is valid.0verall before claims are sent, documentation should be in order and the claim should be checked for completeness and accuracy.

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.

The careful documentation and subsequent billing process within the course of a patient’s care is an important piece within the healthcare system as a whole. Proper documentation in a patient’s chart relating to any service or procedure is not only important for this patient’s future medical care, but for the facility to receive an accurate reimbursement for the services provided. Reimbursement is affected by every department within the hospital. Healthcare is a business in the long run, and inaccuracies within the reimbursement process will affect the financial stability of the hospital. If a department is mismanaging reimbursement data it could result

As a biller or coder, if it is not documented, it didn't happen that needs to follow to be able to give an excellent service to every patients. Documentation is the key to have an appropriate health patients result including demographics, health issues, and billing. “Consistent and complete documentation in the medical record for every patient is an essential component of providing quality patient care. This documentation is required to record pertinent facts, observations and findings, and must meet certain compliance standards.” If not documented that is not necessary to give any further diagnosis

If the code is entered incorrectly the patient could get billed something more expensive. The insurance company is also likely to deny the claim that the medical assistant had sent. If the claim is denied, they should go back and review the information. If they find the error they should go through and fix the mistake, then resend it to the insurance company.

The majority of the time the use of HIM coders are involved in billing and reimbursements. However, coding specialists are important players within the healthcare industry.(Davis, 2014,2007,2002) They certify that providers maintain accuracy with coding procedures and government rules. (Davis, 2014,2007,2002) HIM functions and complex of regulatory requirements where coding can be very challenging. (AHIMA, 2016) The coders follow guidelines of the American Health Information Management Association AHIMA) Code of Ethics. (AHIMA, 2016) On the patient level, it is vitally important for the coder to code accurately because this information will trail the patient success throughout their course of treatment and beyond.

When claims are filed documentation must compare to the amount of service provided. The rule is, “if documentation of procedure is not written, it did not happen. Evaluation and Management (E & M) guidelines are checked periodically to ensure medicare and other payers follow guidelines. The E & M informed and update rules and regulations for coding to ensure practices maintain compliance. Physicians has the responsibility of ensuring employees are trained to coding standards and should periodically go over records themselves to make sure all guidelines are followed.

Under HIPAA, the DHHS established a set of codes for identifying diseases and procedures when healthcare transactions are submitted electronically (Ong, 2011). According to AMA (2015), the appropriate International Classification of Diseases (ICD) code and Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) code must be accurately documented to comply with HIPAA, which begins with scheduling the patient’s appointment. For example, to schedule an office visit for a patient diagnosed with a mental disorder referred for neuropsychological testing, the following codes must be documented when scheduled: Dx: 294 [CPT 96116 (2 hrs)] & [CPT 96119; Tech 183732 (3 hrs)].

Responsible coder collects post and manages account payments, submitting claims and keeping in touch with insurance companies. If patient information is coded incorrectly, or incomplete it could leave an impact that can be brought to a claim. Inaccuracy in patient information can lead to denials, none payment and investigation. It is important to get all the details right by verifying insurance coverage properly. Make sure that the patient’s name is spelled correctly, date of birth and sex of the patient are correct; and most important be sure that the policy number is valid.0verall before claims are sent, documentation should be in order and the claim should be checked for completeness and accuracy.

The third step in the process is the healthcare provider examining the patient and recording the patient symptoms and treatment. This is recorded and the medical coder or billing

Reporting errors can strengthen the processes of care and also enhance the quality of care. To effectively avoid further errors that can cause harm to patients, improvements must be made on the incidents or events reported in reporting system. Reporting errors can help the organizations better understand what happened, identify the factors that cause the occurrence of errors or incidents, determine its frequency and predict whether it could happen again and find an intervention to prevent or to