Part B News | Part B News

Refusing care to the unvaccinated a potential legal and ethical pitfall

09/20/2021

Recent reports of providers refusing to treat patients who are not vaccinated against COVID-19 raise the question: Can providers do that? While there are technical grounds that would arguably allow it, legal experts advise against it.

Federal vaccine mandate could require shot or test for nearly all health care workers

09/20/2021

by: Roy Edroso

The impact of the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate will be more apparent when rulemaking and other sub-regulatory guidance emerges, but it appears that nearly all U.S. health care workers will be required to vaccinate against COVID-19 or take regular COVID tests as a condition of employment.

CCI version 27.3 edits reverse E/M bundles, lock in more code pairs

09/20/2021

by: Julia Kyles, CPC

Mind the latest quarterly National Correct Coding Initiative (CCI) update, which includes a reversal of procedure-to-procedure (PTP) edits that involve E/M codes along with new medically unlikely edits (MUE) for a series of COVID-19 vaccination codes. The edits, released in early September, will go into effect Oct. 1.

Is it an independent interpretation or review of test results? Here’s how to tell

09/20/2021

by: Laura Evans, CPC

As practices adjust to the 2021 E/M office visit guidelines, one area of debate has continued to circulate around when it is appropriate to count an “independent interpretation” versus a review of “the result(s) of each unique test,” as the guidelines define them.

Make sure practitioners get credit for requesting a virtual consult

09/20/2021

by: Julia Kyles, CPC

Question: We are a busy family practice group and the physicians and nurse practitioners often contact specialists in our health system for treatment advice for some of our more complex patients. We know this is good patient care, but gathering records and talking to the specialists often takes a lot of time. When the practitioner sends a request on the same day as an office visit, we code the visit based on time and include that work. The problem comes when the request goes out on a different day. Is there a way to get credit for those requests?

Use 2020 telehealth report as a baseline for internal review

09/20/2021

by: Julia Kyles, CPC

The number of office E/M visits performed via telehealth spiked in April 2020, a sign that medical practices around the country took advantage of the relaxed rules for telehealth services that went into effect March 1, 2020.

Make sure practitioners get credit for requesting a virtual consult

09/20/2021

by: Julia Kyles, CPC

Login

User Name:
Password:
Remember me Forgot password
Welcome to the new Part B News Online. If you are a returning user having trouble logging in, please click here.