Medical Coding Simplified

Quiz created by Vijayarani Sivakumar with GoConqr

Quiz created by Johnny Hammer with GoConqr

Quiz created by Vijayarani Sivakumar with GoConqr

Quiz created by Vijayarani Sivakumar with GoConqr

Quiz created by Vijayarani Sivakumar with GoConqr

Telehealth is the Future of Medicine. It is gaining acceptance by payers, providers and patients. The added Medicare expenditure is to be expected. What is Telemedicine Service? Telehealth services are live, interactive audio and visual transmissions of a physician-patient encounter from one site to another using telecommunications technology. They may include transmissions of real time telecommunications or those transmitted by store-and-forward technology. What is Asynchronous Telecommunication? Medical Information is stored and forwarded to be reviewed at a later time by a physician or health care practitioner at a distant site. The medical information is reviewed without the patient being present. Also referred to as store and forward telehealth or non interactive telecommunication. What is the meaning of originating site? The location of the patient at the time the service being furnished via a telecommunications system occurs. Interactive Audi...

Type of Modifier Modifiers Listed Additional Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System (HCPCS) Modifiers AE, AF, AG, AI, AK, AM, AO, AT, AZ, BL, CA, CB, CG, CR, CT, DA, ER, ET, FB, FC, FX, FY, G7, GC, GE, GG, GJ, GU, J1, J2, J3, JC, JC, JD, JG, JW, KX, L1, M2, PD, PI, PO, PN, PS, PT, Q0, Q1, Q3, Q4, Q5, Q6, QQ, RD, RE, SC, SF, SS, SW, TB, TC, TS, UJ, UN, UP, UQ, UR, US, X1, X2, X3, X4, X5, XE, XP, XS, XU, ZA, ZB, ZC Advance Beneficiary Notice of Noncoverage (ABN) Modifiers GA, GX, GY, GZ Ambulance Modifiers D, E, G, H, I, J, N, P, R, S, X, GM, QL, QM, QN Anatomical Modifiers (Coronary Artery, Eye Lid, Finger, Side of Body, Toe) E1, E2, E3, E4, FA,F1,F2,F4, F5, F6, F7, F8, F9, LC, LD, LM, LT, RC, RI, RT, TA, T1, T2, T3, T4, T5, T6, T7, T8, T9 Note: These modifiers should be used in place of modifier 59 whenever possible. Anesthesia Modifiers AA, AD, G8, G9, P1, P2, P3, P4, P5,P6, ...

When you enter the field of US Healthcare, the first thing you notice right away is the unique terminology that keeps bombarding you! New medical terms and medical slang keep popping up. Added to it is the abbreviations, acronyms and what not.... You feel overwhelmed at first... But gradually with some patience you can master the terms which are used often in your office. I am listing below some common healthcare terms used in Insurance and Billing in RCM. Check them out and hope you will learn a word or two! BILLING TERMS When both you and your health insurance company pay for your health care expenses, it’s called cost sharing. Deductibles, coinsurance and copays are all examples of cost sharing. Understanding how they work will help you know how much you’ll pay. Deductible A deductible is the amount you pay for health care services before your health insurance begins to pay. How it works: If your plan’s deductible is $1,500, you’ll pay 100 percen...

Once Internet entered our lives, there are updates daily. Maybe previously changes were done in the same style, but went unnoticed as there was no common platform for mankind across the planet to connect. We are able to virtually shake hands across continents now! Now that Internet has brought us closer, we easily share each other's experiences in life and follow each other more rigorously. There are new terms and words being added constantly. One such word in the IT BPO sector  in India is Medical Scribing. So, what does a Medical scribe actually do? You must have deduced by now that it is related to the healthcare sector due to the word "Medical". You are right! A medical scribe acts as a medical secretary. He becomes a part of the doctor's team.  In the US, it is mandatory to record all doctor-patient encounters in the form of dictations or records. The dictations need to be transcribed and the copies are sent to the Insurance payers as claims for ...

The question which hovers in our minds is whether Medical Coders are going to be replaced eventually by CAC. This is what happened with Medical Transcription. It was eventually replaced by EHR, not all, but at least 80% is now handled by Voice recognition tools. So this worry is not misplaced. It is genuine. Do consider this point. Will you trust your CAC with all your coding charts. There will be high accuracy rate around 99% in one specialty. The reason for this is coding scenarios are simple and routine. There is not much change in the wordings and the computer can easily see the pattern and gets used to it. But will you be able to apply the same to all specialties in coding? No. The reason is simple. Medicine is a constantly evolving area with new cutting edge technologies being brought in every hour. Added to it is the payers' rules and regulations which keep shifting. When unpredictability is involved in the formula, it is high risk to use CAC. Human interventio...

“Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young.”  ―  Henry Ford Are you interested in Certification? You can become a member of AAPC. Then you need to pay the membership fees annually. After that procedure is completed, you are allowed to sit for AAPC certification exams on any specialty.  Usually the first step taken by novice coders is CPC certification. You can select an Exam Center nearest your location and book a seat for a convenient date months in advance. The exam is 5 hours 40 minutes in duration. You need to be prepared mentally and physically for this rigorous testing. You will be given a questions and answer booklets. You will need to return both at the end of the exam. Materials - like extra sheets, pencil, rubber, coding books will be provided by the exam center in India. Even snacks and a water bottle will be provided to you. It is an open book exam. You will be allowed to refer to the cod...