As intricate and complex as medical billing and coding can be, it is completely possible for things at your medical practice to actually run smoothly and go as planned. And when this happens, a claim is generated and only has to go through the process once instead of having one or several repeated steps. This change drastically speeds up the time it takes for a claim to be paid. Medical billing company like Medisys has such techniques. That is why it is so important to work with experts in the medical billing and coding field like Medisys.
However, many people simply think they are experts even when they are not. Just in case you are not sure whether your practice has everything under control, get the help of medical billing and coding companies in your region and outsource the job. It will keep you busy doing your very own work of attending patients while the experts work on improving your bottom line.
Here are some medical practices facing coding challenges
Pediatrics Medical Coding Challenges and Tips
The number of codes for pediatrics has significantly increased over the last few years. Pediatric practices often deal with an extraordinary patient volume and keeping the practice profitable can over and over again be difficult, mainly when billing and coding errors occur. Along with the vast changes that came about with the move to ICD-10, there were a lot of ICD-10-CM coding changes for 2019 as well. In fact, there were 25 brand new codes just for newborn complications for practices to learn. Along with the additional 25 codes, there were new and revised Z codes to learn for 2019 as well.
Finding coders that have practice-specific training to deal with the unique complexities of your specialty often proves difficult. It’s not surprising that many specialists are now choosing to outsource their medical billing and coding to specialists who fully understand the intricacies that come with coding for their specialty.
Cardiology Medical Coding Challenges and Tips
When ICD-10 was rolled out, it came with a lot of new cardiology-specific practice codes, and it’s really easy for miscoding to happen in this field. While there were plenty of add-ons over the past couple of years for cardiology coding, for 2019 there weren’t as many modifications and additions to worry about. However, there were additional codes added for cerebral infarction and a new subcategory was added for hereditary cerebrovascular diseases. Cardiology practices face some specific coding challenges. Any gaps in documentation can lead to the inability to code some components, resulting in lost income. Cardiology cases are often very composite as well, so it’s principally important to code comorbidities to show the complexity of the case.Â
Radiology Medical Coding Challenges and Tips
Another specialty that is facing great coding challenges is radiology. Radiologists are required to provide substantial details on a patient’s indications and medical history for medical billing and coding, including specifics like specific anatomical location and laterality. One big challenge for radiology clinics is that a lot of their skill to bill correctly for services ordered depends on adequate documentation provided by the ordering doctor. To ensure solid cash flow, radiology practices must make sure they do very detailed and timely reviews of their denials or it’s easy to lose money. Continuing changes to radiology continue to make coding more complex. So it’s important to partner with specialty medical billing experts that know the details of work that keeps you income cycle moving.
