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Practices turned to telehealth for 40% of psych visits after CMS waivers

07/10/2023

Auditors are keying in on psychotherapy services delivered via telehealth, and Medicare claims show that they will have a massive trove of data to investigate. In 2021, as the COVID crisis continued to shutter offices, providers routinely turned to telehealth to deliver behavioral health care to patients after CMS granted waivers, capturing some 40% of visits on the most-used services.

Language translation apps may leave you open to liability; use wisely

07/03/2023

by: Roy Edroso

Are you using, or thinking about using, a translation app to fulfill your responsibilities to patients who are not fluent in English? You may have seen or heard about the ease with which available apps can translate conversation on the fly and wondered whether that would work for the office as well.

Know what to do when a prescribed device is subject of FDA warning letter

07/03/2023

by: Julia Kyles, CPC

The Food & Drug Administration (FDA) recently issued a warning letter to iRhythm Technologies about the Zio AT, one of the manufacturer’s mobile cardiac monitoring devices. However, an FDA warning letter is cause for alertness, not alarm, on the part of providers.

ICD-10-CM update ushers in critical changes to tabular addenda

07/03/2023

Take note of hundreds of updates to the tabular addenda that serves as an instruction guide to the ICD-10-CM code set (PBN 6/26/23). CMS announced the changes as part of the code set update on June 16. All changes, including new, revised and deleted codes and the tabular addenda revisions, take effect Oct. 1.

CMS issues new edits for drug tests, nerve blocks

07/03/2023

by: Julia Kyles, CPC

Take note if your practice bills presumptive and definitive drug tests. Effective July 1, a new procedure-to-procedure (PTP) edit will bundle definitive drug tests into presumptive drug tests. CMS also set a modifier indicator of 0 for the edit, which means you won’t be able to break the pair with a modifier.

Service increase: How to report a shoulder arthroplasty with modifier 22

07/03/2023

by: Savannah Schmidt

Question: What intraoperative work would warrant reporting a reverse shoulder arthroplasty with physician modifier 22 (Increased procedural service)?

Count MDM risk level based on viable treatment options discussed at encounter

07/03/2023

by: Laura Evans, CPC

Question: When selecting the level of risk to code based on medical decision-making (MDM), the 2023 E/M guidelines state that you can count the risk of treatment options that were discussed but ultimately not chosen. We are wondering how much discussion must be documented in order to count toward risk? For example, our providers will list the treatment options and then document what was recommended and decided...

Physicians score EHR systems highly, but many ding chart time

07/03/2023

by: Julia Kyles, CPC

More than 60% of physicians are “very” or “somewhat” satisfied with their electronic health record (EHR) systems and described documenting clinical care – whether they use a paper or EHR system – as “very” or “somewhat” easy, according to analysis of the last three National EHR Surveys, which contain data for 2018, 2019 and 2021.

Overbooking underperforming? 5 tips to unstick your schedule

06/26/2023

by: Roy Edroso

Overbooking patient encounters is an open secret in practice management. But it can be tricky to get the mix of expected no-shows and available provider slots right. Experts suggest some tech fixes, and also alternatives that may, at least to some extent, make the balancing act easier.

Latest quality payment report hints at registries’ growing popularity

06/26/2023

by: Julia Kyles, CPC

Usage patterns show that providers favor all-in-one electronic methods to submit their quality payment program (QPP) data.

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