Healthcare Industry Articles
Welcome to our news and healthcare industry updates. Here you will find information relevant to medical billing and coding, including important news and updates from AMA, CMS, and other Medical industry authoritative resources.
Please check back frequently as new updates are made bi-monthly.
Pre-Op Visits vs. Pre-Op Clearance Visits: Which Are Billable?
August 28, 2023
A question comes up often regarding billing for pre-op visits. Should we? Or shouldn’t we? There is conflicting published guidance on this question from different sources. First, this depends on …
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Prescription Drug Management: The Moderate Risk element of E/M Coding
May 19, 2023
Appropriate documentation of prescription drug management continues to be an opportunity for many physicians. Doctors need to know that simply adding the current medication list to the progress note is …
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OCR Issues a 90-day transition for HIPAA Compliant Telehealth Platforms
April 26, 2023
Under the PHE (Public Health Emergency), non-HIPAA compliant platforms (like smartphone applications FaceTime and Skype) were allowed as long as they were not public facing (i.e., TikTok, Vimeo, etc). But …
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(PHE) Public Health Emergency set to end on May 11th
February 6, 2023
An announcement on Monday, January 30th, by the OMB (Office of Management and Budget), and the White House, stated that they plan to end the COVID-19 national emergency and public …
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Medical Acronyms You Need To Know!
September 9, 2022
In this climate of texting and wanting quick results for everything from ordering your lunch, to ordering medical tests, to attending a meeting with a speaker who uses a lot …
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What’s changing with the new 2023 AMA CPT E/M update?
July 15, 2022
Physician practices have been trying to keep up with all of the recent changes that have been made to the Evaluation and Management Codes over the past 2 years in …
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2nd Quarter 2022 Blog – Coding Corner Q&As
June 27, 2022
When you need answers to coding, billing, and reimbursement questions, who do you turn to? I am sure it isn’t Ghostbusters!. If you are a Coding Corner member or Executive …
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PHE Extended But Some Waivers Expired
April 25, 2022
The PHE was renewed another 90-days effective April 16th, 2022, but what 1135 waivers expired? Renewal of Determination That A Public Health Emergency Exists As a result of the continued …
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Renewal of Determination That A Public Health Emergency Exists
October 19, 2021
As a result of the continued consequences of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, on this date and after consultation with public health officials as necessary, I, Xavier Becerra, Secretary …
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Are you a HIPAA entity? The “Privacy Law” is probably not what you think.
September 10, 2021
If you have heard the acronym HIPAA thrown around a lot lately, you are probably thinking, “Do I know what HIPAA means?”. So many are throwing that term around in …
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Renewal of Determination That A Public Health Emergency Exists
July 19, 2021
As a result of the continued consequences of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, on this date and after consultation with public health officials as necessary, I, Xavier Becerra, Secretary …
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Answers to AMA/CPT® 2021 E/M Documentation rules and Errata Clarifications
May 17, 2021
Ever since the release of the new 2021 Evaluation and Management (E/M) guidelines for Office and Other Outpatient Services, ICD10University has been conducting numerous provider and staff educational training sessions …
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Telehealth, Now and after PHE
March 11, 2021
As we are now well into 2021, and over 12-months from the beginning of the first announced PHE (public health emergency), the past year has been a whirlwind of medical …
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Telehealth spotlight and post-pandemic Medicare audits
May 21, 2020
Over the past several weeks, we have seen unprecedented changes to rules, edits, and other measures traditionally put in place to stave fraud, waste, and abuse in the healthcare industry. …
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Urgent Telemedicine update from CMS and the White House
March 17, 2020
COVID-19 Regulatory Alert: Medicare Telehealth Services Restrictions Lifted Today, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued guidance on Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar’s waiver authority …
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Modifier 22 Letter
October 18, 2019
As promised, below is my Modifier 22 Letter to assist in appealing claims: when the procedure or surgery was an “increased procedural service” and the reimbursement on the fee schedule …
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The Dangers of “Cloned Notes E/M” in Healthcare Practices
August 15, 2019
The practice of cloned or copy and pasted documentation is a significant issue in the use of electronic health records (EHRs). A recent study in the Journal of the American …
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Professionalism in the Healthcare Profession
July 18, 2019
Do you magically become a professional when you obtain a certificate that says you attended school for a certain amount of time? There are ways to represent professionalism, but what …
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