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Wellness programs help but workflow fixes chill physician burnout

07/16/2018

Physician burnout is a hot issue with a mountain of studies devoted to it. Health care organizations have begun to institute programs to relieve it, but some experts think you can make a big difference by simply making providers’ workflow more efficient, leaving them freer to practice medicine.

Revised remittance advice codes alert providers to QMB balance billing scenarios

07/16/2018

by: Richard Scott

Pay close attention to revised remittance advice remark codes (RARCs) pertaining to unsupported qualified Medicare beneficiary (QMB) billing or you could wind up getting sanctioned by the federal government.

‘Siri, violate HIPAA.’ Beware 7 real risks of virtual voice assistants.

07/16/2018

by: Marla Durben Hirsch

Voice-activated virtual assistants, such as Amazon’s Echo and Google Home, are convenient and helpful. They’re rising in popularity with doctors, but they can create legal headaches when used in a physician practice.

Use JW modifier for skin substitute biologics from a single package

07/16/2018

by: Richard Scott

Medical practices have recently been required to submit the modifier JW (Drug amount discarded/not administered to any patient) to denote the unused portion of certain drugs and biologics that come in single-use packages. You should now add skin substitute products to the list, as well.

Tie up your diabetic shoe reporting with correct ICD-10 codes, certifying statements

07/16/2018

by: Richard Scott

Size up your patients who have diabetes to see if they require special footwear or orthotics and ensure your documentation shows a required history of illness — and an appropriate diagnosis code — to get their care started on the right foot.

Modifier 25 used on non-E/M codes gets surprisingly forgiving denial rates

07/16/2018

by: Roy Edroso

Modifier 25 (Significant, separately identifiable E/M service) is, as the name implies, supposed to be used with E/M codes to distinguish the work done on those codes from other services that would ordinarily be bundled with them. But some non-E/M codes were logged with 25 on claims, and a few had surprisingly low denial rates.

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