10 out of 100. That's how often doctors picked the correct place of service (POS) code in 2007, according to the HHS Office of Inspector General's (OIG's) latest report. The OIG estimates POS selection errors triggered more than $13.8 million in overpayments in 2007.
Here's an example of a mistake the OIG found:
"A carrier paid a physician $374 for performing a spinal pain injection procedure coded as having been performed in his office. Our analysis showed that the physician actually performed this procedure in a hospital outpatient department and that a fiscal intermediary had reimbursed the hospital for the overhead portion of the service. If the claim had been coded correctly, the physician would have received a payment of $96, which would not have included overhead costs. As a result of the incorrect coding, the physician was overpaid $278."
The OIG released this report almost one year after its report on POS selection in 2005 - 2006. That report also found a very high error rate: Only 21 of 150 claims had the right POS.