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Saturday, October 15, 2011

DX code V01 - V82 & E800 - E999

SUPPLEMENTARY CLASSIFICATION OF FACTORS INFLUENCING HEALTH
STATUS AND CONTACT WITH HEALTH SERVICES [V01-V82]


[V01-V06] Persons with potential health hazards related to communicable diseases.
[V07-V09] Persons with need for isolation, other potential health hazards and prophylactic measures.
[V10-V19] Persons with potential health hazards related to personal and family history.
[V20-V28] Persons encountering health services in circumstances related to reproduction and
development.
[V30-V39] Live born infants according to type of birth.
[V40-V49] Persons with a condition influencing their health status.
[V50-V59] Persons encountering health services for specific procedures and aftercare.
[V60-V68] Persons encountering health services in other circumstances.
[V70-V82] Persons without reported diagnosis encountered during examination and investigation of
individuals and populations.


SUPPLEMENTARY CLASSIFICATION OF EXTERNAL CAUSES OF INJURY AND POISONING
[E800-E999]
[E800-E807] Railway accidents.
[E810-E819] Motor vehicle traffic accidents.
[E820-E835] Motor vehicle non-traffic accidents.
[E826-E829] Other road vehicle accidents.
[E830-E838] Water transport accidents.
[E840-E845] Air and space transport accidents.
[E846-E848] Vehicle accident not elsewhere classifiable.
[E850-E858] Accidental poisoning by drugs, medicinal substances, and biologicals.
[E860-E869] Accidental poisoning by other solid and liquid substances, gases, and vapors.
[E870-E876] Misadventures to patients during surgical and medical care.
[E878-E879] Surgical and medical procedures as the cause of abnormal
reaction of patient or later complication, without mention of misadventure at the time of
procedure.

[E880-E888] Accidental falls.
[E890-E899] Accidents caused by fire and flames.
[E900-E909] Accidents due to natural and environmental factors.
[E910-E915] Accidents caused by submersion, suffocation, and foreign bodies.
[E916-E928] Other accidents.
[E929-E929] Late effects of accidental injury.
[E930-E949] Drugs, medicinal and biological substances causing adverse effects in therapeutic uses.
[E950-E959] Suicide and self-inflicted injury.
[E960-E969] Homicide and injury purposely inflicted by other persons.
[E970-E978] Legal intervention.
[E980-E989] Injury undetermined whether accidentally or purposely inflicted.
[E990-E999] Injury resulting from operations of war.
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Friday, October 7, 2011

Identifying Adjustments and Voids on the Remittance Voucher


Adjustments on the Remittance Voucher

Adjustment requests are printed on the remittance voucher as two different claim entries.

The incorrectly paid claim is listed exactly as it was when it was originally reported. The transaction control number (TCN) for this entry is not the same as the original claim, but is a system-assigned, unique “credit” TCN. The original incorrect payment is credited back to Medicaid’s account. A minus symbol ( - ) appears just to the right of the incorrectly paid amount. The adjusted request is printed directly following the original claim entry.

Incorrect claim information on the original now shows as corrected. The difference between these two entries is the “NET” amount on the remittance voucher.

An Adjustment Reason Code (ADJ-R) and the TCN of the claim being adjusted are listed following the two claim entries. Adjustment reason codes are defined in the summary section of the remittance voucher.

Voids on the RV 

Void requests are printed as one claim entry. The entire claim is displayed and the payment amount is returned to Medicaid. A minus symbol ( - ) appears next to the amount.

Adjustment or Void Reason Codes

An Adjustment Reason Code appears with each adjustment or void shown on the remittance voucher. These numeric codes are explained on the remittance voucher.
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Wednesday, October 5, 2011

INJURY AND POISONING [800-999]

[800-829] Fractures.
[800-804] Fracture of skull.
[805-809] Fracture of neck and trunk.
[810-819] Fracture of upper limb.
[820-829] Fracture of lower limb.
[830-839] Dislocation.

[840-848] Sprains and strains of joints and adjacent muscles.
[850-854] Intracranial injury, excluding those with skull fracture.
[860-869] Internal injury of thorax, abdomen, and pelvis.
[870-897] Open wound o.
[900-904] Injury to blood vessels.
[905-909] Late effects of injuries, poisonings, toxic effects, and other external causes.
[910-919] Superficial injury.
[920-924] Contusion with intact skin surface.
[925-929] Crushing injury.
[930-939] Effects of foreign body entering through orifice.
[940-949] Burns.
[950-957] Injury to nerves and spinal cord.
[958-959] Certain traumatic complications and unspecified injuries.
[960-979] Poisoning by drugs, medicinal and biological substances.
[980-989] Toxic effects of substances chiefly non-medicinal as to source.
[990-995] Other and unspecified effects of external causes.
[996-999] Complications of surgical and medical care, not elsewhere classified.
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Saturday, October 1, 2011

The Benefits of Outsourcing - Process of Medical Billing outsource

Are you a doctor who has a successful medical practice? Have you often heard friends suggesting you to switch outsourced medical billing if you are planning to expand your business further? If the answer to those two questions is “Yes!” you do not have to look any further. We are here to demystify the benefits of outsourcing for you.

First let’s understand what exactly outsourced medical billing is. Outsourcing your medical billing to a company that provides a more efficient solution to organize and arrange your medical billing records. These experienced firms bring their latest and trusted methods to manage your accounts after doing an in-depth analysis of your business. They may have one basic process but they fine-tune in to meet the needs of each client. So before you decide if you want to adopt this model for your business, let’s have a look at some of the benefits of outsourcing.

When you opt for an outsourcing firm to handle your medical billing, you can go back to doing what you do best. You can continue to be the friendly doctor you always dreamt to become, instead of constantly worrying about the financial aspects of the business. Healthcare billing has become quite complex in the last few years. Also the rules of insurance companies and other regulatory agencies change so frequently that it has become almost impossible to keep a tab on all of that. But when you pick a partner to handle your outsourced medical billing, they will resolve all your tensions. After all you have left the task of worrying to the experts.

Also with a company that is dedicated to your medical billing, the rate of defaulters is reduced. After all the company is only going to get paid if it completes the task it was assigned to do. Also, you may not believe it at first when we tell you; but you can actually lower your expenditure this way. It is true that the company will charge a fee for their services, but this cost will still be lower than what you would have spent to train your nursing staff to collect medical bills. And then you also have to worry about buying financial software with its constant updates. But the cost of this software is included in the outsourcing package now.

If you are still not happy with the benefits of outsourcing your medical billing, the last reason will surely make you reconsider your position. If you are suspicious that your employees are stealing from the medical bills, this is the best way to put that suspicion to rest once and for all. You still remain the head of the business, but you have only hired a company to handle one aspect of your business. 
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Medical Billing

What is the overall Billing process?

The physician doesn’t get paid for his services immediately after they are rendered. Majority of the patients have insurance coverage and details of such coverage are provided to the physician before treatment. It is the responsibility of the physician to submit claims to the insurance company and get paid for his services. Submitting Claims and getting paid is a lengthy process and involves a lot of rules and regulatory systems and is very complicated. The physician needs to adhere to all these rules before submitting claims. This is the concept of Medical Billing. Sometimes the physician cannot provide his entire attention to this activity. He entrusts this activity to Billing Companies. This is a process of the physician providing rights to Billing Companies to bill Medical Insurance claims in order to save his time energy, and money.

After the provider renders services to the patient, the billing company will submit bills to the insurance company/ payer, using the insurance information that was last provided, as well as information about the reason for the examination, and the exact type of procedure performed.

Medical coding is the process of converting Medical terms to numeric code and it required Medical knowledge skills.

Medical billing is the process of submitting the claims and get paid behalf of provider.

I have listed the important process in Medical Billing. Each process is very important.


1. Insurance verification.

2. Demo and Charge entry process.

3. Claim submission.

4. Payment posting.

5. Action on denials or Denial management or Account receivables.


Insurance verification

Process started from here and usually front desk people are doing this process. Its a process of verifying the patients insurance details by calling insurance or through online verification. If this department works well, we could resolve more problem. We have to do this even before patient appointment.

Demo and Charge entry process

Demographic entry is nothing but capturing all the information of patients. It should be error free.

Charge-entry is one of the key departments in Medical Billing. Key department?? Yes, that's true. It is the keying-in department in Medical Billing. After receiving the super bills from the Doctor's office, it gets passed through the coding department, and then comes to the charge-entry department.


A Charge-entry person also has one other vital role to perform. That is, to look-up the codes entered in the claim, and to assign the relevant charges for those codes.

Claim submission Process

The next step after demographics and charge entry is claim generation. Claims may be paper claims or electronic claims. There are various types of forms for paper claims. The most widely used form is Health Care Finance Admin-1500 designed by the Health Care Financing Administration.

Electronic transmission of claims is the modern way of sending claims with less paper work. The most common means of transmission are through internet . The claim information is directly loaded into the insurance company's computer system or to the clearing house.


Payment Posting Process

Once the claims reach the carriers and they complete processing, they issue a check and prepare an Explanation of Benefits . The checks and the Explanation of Benefits would be sent to the pay-to address with the carrier or in the Health Care Finance Administrators.


In this processing we have accounted the money into the account as per the Explanation of Benefits. Now a days we are using Electronic payment posting also.

Action on denials or Denial management or Account Receivables

This is a most important function in the process flow of data. Unless this is taken care of, insurance balance will only be on an upward trend.

Problem in Medical Billing

•Inaccurate or lack of coding

• Incomplete claims

• Lack of supporting documentation

• Poor communication with the payer

• Not billing for services rendered

* Not being follow up AR balance claims


The person who is doing this process will be called Medical billing specialist.

Who is Medical Billing Specialist.

Medical billing Specialist is the one who is handling the below process and having well knowledge in each and every process.

* Insurance verification process

* Patient demographic and charge entry process.

* Submitting the claims by electronic as well as paper method. Tracking various claim submission report.

* Payments posting process for insurance as well as patient.

* Denial management.

* Insurance followup management.

* Insurance appeal process.

* Handling patient billing inquiries.

* Patient statement process.

* Preparing monthly reports such as revenue report and account receivable report and as per the provider requirement.

Medical Billing Specialists are in charge of reviewing patient charts and documents. They prepare and review all medical insurance claims based on the rules and regulations of insurance companies. Medical Billing Specialists also review insurance communications, payment and rejection notices to properly track all claims and payments.


Medical Billing specialist Professional

If a person is computer literate he is a fit enough candidate to take up the profession of medical billing and medical coding. However he will need to be trained and be aware of a lot of new information before he can start working effectively. He has to learn about the medical billing software and must be familiar with and master the various commands used while working with it.


Who are medical coders and how is it related to medical billing? Medical billing is a sub specialty of medical coding. Medical coding is the first step in the billing process. All patient records are maintained using the ICD-9 index system so that it is compliant with the federal rules.

A medical Biller’s most important skill includes filling up of the various medical forms correctly without any mistakes what so ever. All information required should be complete without any mistake at all. And the work will be include the following

Patient demographic entry

Insurance enrollment

Charge entry

Insurance verification

Billing and reconciling of accounts

Payment posting

Insurance authorization

Medical coding

Scheduling and rescheduling

Account receivable follow-ups and collections

Is it worth taking a medical billing program?

Usually don't spend too much cost on Medical billing program because the program will not do anything with real experience. What you learn from these kind of program will not be going to match with when you are working in the real environment. Hence just use as the start kind of program and get the real time experience even in small salary and later you can come up with more demanding one.


Problem of In House Processing of Medical Claims

Medical claims are generally very complex and have long extended details. While processing medical claims, one has to be highly critical and do efficient follow-up in order to get results. The process requires a lot of time and effort. And even after all this, there can be cases where files get lost or a small error can ruin the entire lot and everything has to be re-submitted again. Usually practice staff can be held up with lot of current work rather than submitting the claim and resubmitting the corrected claim hence it will lead to time delay on payment flow and it will affect all the relationship with in the practice. Even cost wise is also not effective when compare to outsourcing.

Advantage of Medical Billing Outsource

Medical Billing Company helps you in managing all your billing requirements proficiently. By choosing right medical billing company, you can get benefit such as improved financial strength.

Medical Billing task is very tedious and time consuming. However, billing must require more accuracy and special attention to strengthen the financial condition of clinical or hospital. You can do this task at own or assign to clinical staff but you have to be pleased with low patients satisfaction. Medical billing company can help you in supportive task. By efficient medical service, you will get highly satisfied patients.

A Medical Billing service can improve the efficiency of your billing system, reduce denials, cut down operating costs, boost reimbursements and save valuable time that can be devoted to patient care. These services are better equipped to adapt to continuously changing billing codes and industry requirements.


* Prince is low compare to doing it in house

* Dedicated Highly Skilled Professionals

* No need to maintain the hardware . Ability to perform Medical Billing remotely, using the software of your choice

* Usually Maximum reimbursements and fewer denials

* Accuracy is high when compare

* Faster transaction


Question need to ask when Medical Billing Outsourcing

1. Check with their referral and how long they are doing this business.

2. Are they HIPAA compliance

3. Where they are doing their work. If possible just visit there.

4. Data security.

5. Compare the price with others.

6. what are the reports they will provide

7. Your specialty wise question

8. Their software skills.


Services and process involved in Medical Billing

* Coding ( CPT, ICD-9, and HCPCS)

* Patient Demographics Entry

* Charge Entry – All specialties

* Payment Posting (Manual and Electronic)

* Payment Reconciliation

* Denials/rejections analysis, re-billing

* Accounts Receivable Follow-up

* Systemic A/R projects, re-billing

* Collection Agency Reporting

* Refunds


Medical Billing Salary Range

Depending on the education qualification, the hourly rate varies from $12-$15. Another most important factor that affects billing pay is how long someone has worked in the field. Medical specialist with experience of 1 year earns around $12 per hour. Those who have more experience in billing earn up to $16 per hour. However, the geographic location also plays a role in pay scale. For instance, areas where cost of living is high, the pay will be more. Billers who work in New York City, Houston, Chicago and California are able to pull a good amount of salary. Work locations such as hospital, billing company or private practice will also affect the salary. Since there are lots of factors which affect the salary of billing, it is really not easy to predict the pay scale. Studies have shown that 50% of people earned around $35,000-$45,000 annually.


Most of the medical Billers are paid hourly, rather than annually. While Biller who is experienced can earn around $40,000 a year as an independent contractor working from home, a billing and coding specialist who runs his own firm can earn $100,000 a year. However, people who are searching for home based job should be very careful. There is lots of fraud going on in this field. These spammers charge hundred to thousand dollars and in exchange they claim they will help to get a placement in billing. They also promise that medical billing job can earn a substantial amount of money and no experience required. But in reality, those who paid to get a job end up with no job, no money. Billing is a very competitive field, so without experience or training in medical billing field, it is almost impossible to get a job.

Selecting Medical Billing Software - 10 things to consider

1. The first step is to evaluate your needs. And when evaluating different systems look for a package that goes one step ahead of billing. Choose a medical practice management system MPP. This will handle considerably more that just medical billing.

2. Determine whether the system handles electronic transmission of claims, direct billing for patients, co-pays, co-insurance, and expenses not covered by insurance.

3. Weigh the pros and cons of different medical billing systems and ask to see a system in operations. Always check out the references yourself.

4. Look for a medical billing management system that is user friendly. When a vendor demonstrates get your office staff to be present. This way you will be able to check how the software functions. Any software must be easy to use to be productive. The system should be fool proof.

5. Ask whether the medical billing software is a traditional system, one that will work on your office computers or an application service provider system (ASP), one that will process data at the software company’s data center.

6. Always get quotes from at least three medical billing software providers.

7. Ask whether they are offering an evaluation period or trial. This will enable you to know in actuality whether the system works or not.

8. Find out about training your office people, up-gradation of system, and whether the software is compatible with your office computer systems

.9. Find out whether the system will handle appointment scheduling, maintenance of records and so on apart from electronic medical records, SOAP notes, and billing. Choose a system that is comprehensive.

10. An ideal Medical Billing software system must include aspects like payment posting, reconciliation; follow up, secondary submission, and patient billing.Choose a transparent billing system that enhances your office efficiency. Install a system that you can use not one that will lead to frustration and problems.Medical billing systems must free your time and that of your office staff not make you run in circles. Choose a system with care.

Disclaimer

All the contents and articles are based on our experience and our knowledge in Medical billing. All the information are educational purpose and we are not guarantee of accuracy of information. Before implement anything do your own research. All our contents are protected by copyright laws and guidelines.
If you feel some of our contents are misused please mail me at medicalbilling4u@gmail.com. We will response ASAP.