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Evaluating Compliance Strategies

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Evaluation Compliance Strategies Medical Billing and coding compliance is very important to the billing world. Billing management starts at the first patient contact and ends only when the account has been paid in full. . In between, there are a series of important steps, each of which is critical for accurate billing and proper reimbursement. In this essay we are going to discuss the importance of the linkage code, implications of incorrect medical coding, and how physicians and payers fee are related to the billing compliance. We are also going to discuss what steps we can take to meet the compliance standards. When claims are filed correctly they will show the connection between the service being billed and the diagnosis code. The linkage code helps determine which procedure goes with which diagnosis code. If the linkage codes are not correct this will cause the claim to be denied. Linkage codes help the payer to determine the medical necessity for the service provided. Payers will determine the coverage by medical necessity. Services that are considered to be of nonmedical necessity are not covered under an insurance policy. It is important that the billing specialist be aware that different payers will have their own set of medical necessity edits. The implications of incorrect medical coding can cause issues for both the medical provider and the patient. Coding incorrectly can cause denial of claims. Providers would lose their patients trust, causing them to seek health care elsewhere. Providers can be fined from $5000 to $ 10,000 per incident of incorrect coding. Providers could lose participation privileges for insurance providers. United States Attorney General Janet Reno stated, "We have made health care fraud a priority and we will pursue it as vigorously as we can." (Blankenship...et al, 1999, pg. 1083 paragraph 2). The provider could eventually end up having criminal charges filed against them and lose their ability to practice medicine altogether.
How are medical coding, physician, and payer fees related to the compliance process?
Fees are related to the compliance process due to all fees have a normal range for the geographic are where services are provided. Different types of practices base their fees from this range. The fees are determined by analyzing the rates charged, the amount government programs will reimburse, and the amount private payers will pay for procedures. When codes are updated and changed the providers will adjust their fees to match the new codes. Payers base their fees by using two different structures; a charge-based and a resource-based. Charge-based are fees that are determined by the fees charged by providers in the same field. Three different features determine the resource-based fees; how difficult the procedure is, how much overhead the procedure involves, and the risk that procedure may present to patient and provider.
Making sure compliance guidelines are met for every single claim is the most important part of the billing specialist position. One of the errors that can occur is when the billing specialist doesn’t avoid unbundling, and not knowing the global periods allowed by providers. Bundling is a single payment code that is for two or more related procedures. An example of a bundled code; CPT 27370 codes an injection procedure for knee arthrography. This code already includes fees that would be for codes 20610 injection of major point, 76000 Fluoroscopy (separate procedure), 76003 Fluoroscopic guidance. These are procedures that are part of the procedures that were performed. Global period is the time allowed for follow-up care. For most payers there are two preoperative periods, and usually three postoperative periods. It will be important to be able to determine which period will be used. Using the appropriate E/M code for new patients and established patients, using just the top two levels would not be accurate billing for all visits. Modifiers are important to the compliance process. Modifiers help determine that unbundling and duplicate billing are not occurring. Knowing which modifiers and when to use them will be very helpful for the billing specialist. Providers should perform an internal audit on claims that are processed. This will help catch any errors that may have occurred. Not all claims would have to be audited; the provider can have it set to do a percentage of claims or claims that have newer procedure codes.
When providers give their billing specialist reference tools and proper training, compliance should not be an issue. It is very important for the billing specialist to ask questions when they are not sure of something. When we are conscious in our work and take the time to always double check we are less likely to make errors.

References:
Blankenship, J.C., Bateman, T.M., Haines, D. E., Pearlman, A. S., Schoenfeld, M. H.,. … Sigel, C.J. (1999). “ACC expert consensus document on ethical coding and billing practices for cardiovascular medicine specialist”. Journal of the American College of Cardiology. 33(1076-1086), 1083. Retrieved from http://content.onlinejacc.org/cgi/content/full/33/4/1076#SEC9
Valerius, J., Bayes, N., Newby, C., Seggern, J., (2008). Medical Insurance (3rd ed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill.

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