Wound Care: Refer to This Handy Chart to Make Graft Coding a Cinch

Posted on 27. May, 2010 by Editor.

Careful: Skip over codes for legs and zero in on foot codes.

With the many graft options — including those taken from cadavers, pigs, and newborns — correctly coding a skin graft procedure can leave you guessing. Use this chart to narrow down the grafting field by matching definitions, product names, and treatment applications to CPT codes. Then, you’ll be sure to sail through coding your next graft claim.

Don’t miss:

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Medical Coders: Focus on Fibroid Diagnosis

Posted on 27. May, 2010 by Editor.

Find out why you should code the pathology exam of uterus with leiomyomas as 88307.

Question: When our pathologist diagnoses uterine fibroid tumors, what ICD-9 code should we use?

Pennsylvania Subscriber

Answer: You should choose the diagnosis based on the fibroid’s location:

• Submucous fibroids (218.0, Submucous leiomyoma of uterus) grow from the uterine wall toward the uterine cavity. They are also called intracavitary fibroids.
• Intramural fibroids (218.1, Intramural leiomyoma of uterus) grow within the uterine wall (myometrium). They are also called interstitial fibroids.
• Subserous fibroids (218.2, Subserous leiomyoma of uterus) grow outward from the uterine wall toward the abdominal cavity. They are also called subperitoneal fibroids.
• If the physician does not specify the uterine fibroid’s location, assign 218.9 (Leiomyoma of uterus, unspecified) as the diagnosis.

CPT alert:

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MACs Differ on Response to CMS’s Cardiology Payment Adjustments

Posted on 27. May, 2010 by Editor.

Don’t look for a raise just yet, in most cases.

CMS may talk, but MACs don’t always listen — at least not quickly.

As we told you in last week’s Insider, CMS recently corrected several “technical errors” published in the 2010 Fee Schedule, and thanks to these corrections, Medicare will increase payment for several cardiology-related testing codes, including codes 75571-75574 (Heart CT) and 78451-78454 (Heart muscle SPECT imaging).

Although many practices are eager to see the payment boosts in their next Medicare payments, that may be an overly ambitious goal at this point.

“I inquired with a few MAC carriers such as Trailblazer, Noridian, and Palmetto, and was told different things by different Medicare payers,” says Terry Fletcher, BS, CPC, CCS-P, CCS, CMSCS, CCC, CEMS, CMS, CEO of Terry Fletcher Consulting Inc.

“One did not even know there was a change,” she says. “Next,

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Cardio Coders: Discover Disconnect Date’s Proper Place

Posted on 26. May, 2010 by Editor.

Tip: You need to know the hook-up date and disconnect day.

Question: Which date(s) of service should I report for 30-day cardiac event monitoring?

Washington Subscriber

Answer: For Noridian Medicare, your Part B administrator for Washington, you’ll need to know both (1) the date the staff hooked up the patient and (2) the day they disconnected the patient. But knowing which dates to report is only half the battle — you also need to know where to report them.

When you’re reporting 30-day cardiac event monitoring, Noridian requires providers to report the hook-up date as the “from” date and the disconnect date as the “through” date in Item 19 of the CMS-1500 (or its electronic equivalent).

Watch out:

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2 Reasons to Think Twice Before Reporting 78070 With 78803

Posted on 26. May, 2010 by Editor.

Sometimes CCI compliance requires looking beyond the edit pairs.

Correct Coding Initiative (CCI) edits don’t bundle SPECT (78803) and planar (78070) parathyroid imaging codes, but coding experts often tell you not to code the two together for SPECT and planar parathyroid imaging on the same date.

Add some method to this madness by looking at the information offered by two coding resources, the Society of Nuclear Medicine (SNM) and the NCCI Policy Manual for Medicare Services (CCI Manual).

1. SNM Singles Out 78803

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Examine These FAQ to Sort Your Medicare Cancer Screen Codes

Posted on 26. May, 2010 by Editor.

Remember frequency rules differ for average, high risk.

Getting Medicare to pony up for colorectal cancer screenings is not difficult provided you follow its frequency guidelines and eligibility requirements to the letter. A coding slip up on one of these items will knock you out of the saddle, and Medicare won’t accept the claim at all.

Rope in all the coding info you’ll need via this Medicare colorectal cancer screening FAQ.

Who’s Eligible for Average-Risk Test?

If the Medicare patient is 50-plus years old, he is eligible for a covered Medicare screening, confirms Dena Rumisek, CPC, biller at Michigan’s Grand River Gastroenterology PC.

However:

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Use 3 CPT, Modifier, and ICD-9 Code Pairs to Ace This X-Ray Claim

Posted on 24. May, 2010 by Editor.

Decipher why you should include a seconding diagnosis.

Question: A 38-year-old patient presents to the emergency room with complaints of wheezing, coughing, and trouble catching her breath. After the nonphysician practitioner (NPP) performs a problem-focused history, the physician performs a detailed history and exam and discovers focal ronchi. The physician orders a two-view chest x-ray to check for upper respiratory infection (URI) The chest x-ray results reveal acute URI, and the ronchi clears up upon reevaluation. The patient is treated with antibiotics. How should I code this scenario?

Answer:

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Recovery Audit Contractors: Know These RAC Fast Facts

Posted on 24. May, 2010 by Editor.

RACs are just another tool in the government’s arsenal to collect improper payments.

You’ve got so many compliance acronyms flying at you every day that you may not be able to differentiate your RAC from the OIG. Know these quick facts about RACs to stay better informed.

• Recovery audit contractors (RACs) detect and correct past improper payments so CMS and the MACs can prevent such problems in the future
• RACs are hired as contractors by the government, and they can can collect “contingency fees,” which means that they get a percentage of the amount that they recover from providers who were paid inappropriately The maximum RAC lookback period is three years, and they cannot review claims paid prior to Oct. 1, 2007

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Cost of Freezing Conversion Factor is Over $6 Billion — Just for 2010

Posted on 24. May, 2010 by Editor.

Plus: The OIG recovered over $1.5 billion in fiscal year 2009, and is on the lookout to collect more.

With less than two weeks to go before Medicare payments once again threaten to decrease by 21 percent, a new report sheds light on the financial outcome of Congressional actions.

Although the 2010 Physician Fee Schedule originally included a conversion factor that would have been 21 percent lower than the 2009 level, practices haven’t felt that cut yet this year,because legislators have voted several times to freeze payments, which now use the conversion factor of $36.0791. That freeze will expire on May 31, after which your Medicare payments will drop considerably unless Congress steps in once more.

However, one government entity’s calculations show that the freeze is costly. According to a May 7 Congressional Budget Office report, freezing payments at the current levels for the rest of 2010 would cost the government…

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Fibroid Coding Got You Frustrated? 5 Myth Busters Fix Your Claims

Posted on 20. May, 2010 by Editor.

Find out what your fibroid diagnosis options are for both ICD-9 and ICD-10.

If you’re reporting uterine fibroid removal, you need to know two things:

• Where the fibroid was located, so you can choose the diagnosis code.
• What method the obgyn used to take care of the growth.

Simplify this complicated coding scenario by busting the following four myths.You’ll know where to look in both your ICD and CPT manuals before the fibroid report lands on your desk.

Don’t Confuse Fibroids With Polyps

Myth: Fibroids and polyps are essentially the same thing.

Reality: True, fibroids and polyps are both growths, but one occurs in the endometrial lining while the other occurs in the muscle.

Polyps are small growths on the surface of the uterine wall that are easy for the ob-gyn to remove. In other words, “they are an overgrowth of the endometrial lining,” says David Glassman, DO, FACOG, medical director of Biltmore Women’s Health and Aesthetics and assistant program director at the department of obstetrics and gynecology residency at Banner Good Samaritan in Phoenix. “They’re intracavitary lesions.”

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