Medical Coding Updates
Knowing how to accurately code and bill telemedicine services has been one of the biggest telehealth problems that practices are running into due to the amount of policy changes released over a short time period and the lack of experience in documenting these services. Here are the other most common challenges in telehealth and most popular questions about telemedicine.
The CPT Editorial Panel conducted a special meeting to expedite the publishing of four new CPT codes for lab tests related to COVID-19 (AMA, 2020). These new CPT codes for laboratory tests, which are available for review on the AMA’s Public Health Resource Center, address the ongoing need to report COVID-19 testing, and include two regular CPT codes and two Proprietary Laboratory Analyses (PLA) codes.
The unprecedented events of the COVID-19 pandemic have resulted in another unprecedented event: the release of new ICD-10-PCS codes that will be put in use immediately – effective with discharges on or after August 1, 2020, rather than the usual effective date of October 1 (CMS, 2020).
CPT coders are familiar with the monthly publication CPT Assistant, but this year another AMA publication is offering an additional resource for CPT news: The CPT Quarterly. The Q2 edition was recently released by the AMA.
Cross-training your organization’s most qualified outpatient coders in inpatient coding is a sure way to bolster your bottom line and receive the most return on your investment in coding education. But, how do you identify these coders who are ready to train as inpatient coders and grow their professional experience? The key is to rely on a highly skilled team with experience in inpatient coding education, as well as inpatient coding support and auditing services, like YES HIM Consulting. Let our team of experienced HIM and coding experts come in and assist you in implementing this profitable business strategy!
The National Center for Health Statistics released the 2021 ICD-10-CM code set and guidelines, both of which will be effective October 1, 2020 (CDC, 2020). Details on the 2021 ICD-10-CM Updates Webinar from YES HIM Education will be coming soon. The presentation will include a comprehensive review of the changes to the guidelines and codes with important clinical background information. The code set includes 490 new codes, 47 revisions, and 58 codes that have been deleted. Guideline changes include the updates for COVID-19 and Vaping-related disorders that were released in April and other changes.
Online medical coding classes – while informative and flexible – can be dense and hard to understand given the complexity of the educational material. Facilities looking to add new coders or cross-train team members on a new set of coding knowledge require experts not only in education, but subject matter experts that will be able to answer practical questions that coders encounter in their day-to-day coding jobs. We give our learners the competitive advantage over other coder learners in the field by offering live sessions and question queues.
YES HIM Consulting designs learning paths and coding tracks for busy professionals who need to take courses on their own time. Our catalog offers customizable formats to fit physicians’, coders’, and auditors’ schedules and learning styles – including on-site, online, and hybrid or blended models. Ongoing coding education is one of the ways to keep your team and organization compliant. Click here to review the other benefits of keeping your team up-to-date with coding and guideline changes with customizable coding education formats.
The Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) expanded the payment guidelines for professional telehealth services provided to Medicare beneficiaries during the Public Health Emergency (PHE) declared for COVID-19 (CMS, 2020). The temporary protocol expansion was deemed necessary to aid healthcare reimbursement, and will be active only during the PHE. To keep coders and auditors up-to-date on the expanded services and reimbursement guidelines, YES HIM Consulting has gathered all the latest updates to form a telehealth resource center.
In conjunction with TruCode’s Educational Series of free webinars, YES President and CEO, Karen Youmans hosted a webinar focused on HCC education and coding, and the application of the M.E.A.T. Criteria. The webinar, which was held twice due to popular demand, was attended by over 3,000 HIM professionals. If you missed the opportunity to attend either session, you can download the presentation slides here. We will recap the main points made during the webinar, and provide additional resources to help you and your organization become HCC experts.