From turkey tragedies to shopping shenanigans, there’s an ICD-10 code to cover whatever may ail you while preparing for the holidays. Medical billing and coding experts may see an influx of the following ICD-10 codes in the upcoming months; so, get a jump start to make this holiday season a breeze!

1. W14.XXXA — Fall from tree: while trying to get the tree topper on straight.
2. R12 — Heartburn: after attending the second Thanksgiving meal of the day.
3. Z72.820 — Sleep deprivation: from staying up late wrapping presents.
4. Y93.23 — Activity, snow, sledding: when snow days take a turn for the worst.
5. W00.0XXA — Fall due to ice and snow: Temperatures are dropping!
6. V06.00XA —Collision with non-motor vehicle: when the kids get new bikes for Christmas.
7. V80.1 — Injury as occupant of animal-drawn vehicle: Watch out for Santa’s sleigh!
8. X08.8 — Burn by candle: while lighting your favorite apple cider scented candle.
9. Z62.891 — Sibling rivalry: during the long car ride to visit relatives.
10. Y93.D — Arts and crafts injury Home-made gifts sound like a great idea until injury strikes.
11. Y93.G — Cooking injury: Careful not to burn yourself when baking Santa’s cookies!
12. T75.4 — Electric shock: Are the twinkling lights worth the shock risk?
13. F43.8 — Emotional stress: Over-committing and holidays go hand in hand.
14. W61.43 — Pecked by turkey: Better stick with frozen, they’re less feisty!
15. Y92.59 — Injury at shopping mall: Black Friday sales bring out shoppers’ aggressive sides.
16. S39.92XS — Unspecified injury of lower back: Digging the decorations out of the closet is not for the weak.
17. T33.09XA — Superficial frostbite: Bundle up!
18. V00.321A — Fall from snow skis: Family ski trip sounds like a great idea until someone ends up in the emergency room.
19. W11.XXXA — Fall on or from ladder: while lining the roof with lights.
20. Y92.254 — Injured at the theater: while seeing your favorite holiday show.

Overwhelmed by busy holiday schedules? Let us take medical billing and coding off your plate! Contact MEREM Healthcare Solutions today to see what we can do to help your practice. Visit www.CodeCollect.net or call (205) 329-7519 for more information.

Holiday ICD-10

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(Save Money: Assess Your Medical Revenue Cycle Before ICD-10)

In 1998-1999, Australia implemented ICD-10. Their approach to the drastic coding change was to stagger the exertion slowly, by state, over the course of a year. For this reason, and a few others, Australia’s implementation is considered to be a little less painful, but there are still many things we can learn from their successes.

Education

Australia’s greatest success was their education efforts. ICD-10 professionals took the time to meet with coders, medical coding companies, healthcare professionals, and analysts to create exceptional educational materials for the country to review prior to implementation.

These efforts began a year and a half ahead of time and are often credited to a fast return time to normal coding production. In fact, Australia conducted a study to evaluate production levels and found a return to normal coding production speeds within 12-16 weeks. That’s quite an impressive speed for such a major shift in coding.

Assessing

Another great tactic many Australian medical coding companies attribute to their ICD-10 success was the extensive assessments they conducted before and after implementation.

Prior to starting ICD-10, consultants throughout Australia studied the processes of clinicians use of ICD-9 to identify the already-weak areas of coding. This helped determine who needed more help than others, and how soon to begin training in what areas.

Following implementation, Australia continued to conduct studies and surveys on health care practices. These surveys had a purpose of targeting areas struggling with workflow related issues, and finding areas that needed extra education efforts to bring them up to speed.

One final notable assessment Australia used was surveying coders in order to gain their feedback and resolve issues. This also sparked the addition of specialized training workshops that helped coders in specialized fields reach normal production levels as quickly as coders in more general practices.

Anticipation

Anticipation is clearly the key take away from Australia’s ICD-10 implementation. They anticipated a significant learning curve and gave the country a lengthy period of time to get the proper education. They anticipated certain areas of practice would need more hands-on help than others, and prepared to locate these areas by constructing surveys and assessments.

What else can be anticipated? Cost. The Australian National Centre for Classification in Health revealed that their implementation cost around $10.5 million. The cost included the money used in training and the money lost due to productivity levels. By anticipating around the same level of costs in the U.S, you can prepare by gaining an extra line of credit from the bank.

Unfortunately, ICD-10 coding implementation is around the corner, and if you have not already been preparing for the huge change, you might find your practice falling behind.

The good news? Medical coding companies across America have been training for a long time and are prepared to help you.

If you are looking for a medical billing services company in Birmingham, AL, contact MEREM Health Today.

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Assess your medical revenue cycle now and prepare for the future. Make sure your practice has a strong hold on underpayments and contract compliance policies.

Underpayments

Practices need to stay alert when it comes to underpayments. Underpayments are to be expected, but it’s important to consistently oversee them and seek the necessary reimbursements.

Most medical practices have systems in place to help with underpayments via contract compliance, but nothing really deals with underpayments with overwhelming success. By staying top of even the smallest payment variations from payers, practices can prevent a potentially large sum of money from accumulating and going missing from a medical revenue cycle.

Contracts

In order to avoid lost funds down the line, practices need to ensure they are staying up to date on their fee schedules and contract compliance policies. If your fee schedules go out of date, underpayments will go unpaid. It’s important to make sure both parties (payer and practice) have a mutual and thorough understanding of their contracts. Many times these contracts are built on time-sensitive reimbursement for improper payments.

Failure to understand a time restraint issue could prevent your revenue management team from filing for reimbursement within time limits, and lose money. This is especially crucial to oversee during the ICD-10 switch, as incorrect coding will need to be found as soon as possible in order to receive proper payments. A limit in reimbursement time limits the time to correct coding errors.

The best way to be confident your medical revenue cycle will go unharmed is to start by paying close attention to issues that may already be occurring, gaining as much knowledge you can of ICD-10, and develop a plan of action.

Are you worried about the effect of ICD-10 on your medical revenue cycle? MEREM Health’s professional coders can help ensure you stay coding correctly. Contact us today for help with managing your revenue cycle effectively and professionally.

The post Medical Billing Services – Assess Your Medical Revenue Cycle Before ICD-10 appeared first on MEREM Health.

Defining “Families”

Simply put, for the 12 month ICD-10 ‘grace period’, claims will not be denied for not being specific enough.

Under ICD-10, there are significantly more codes, built to make claims more exact in order to reduce billing fraud.  Under ICD-9, many codes are fairly generic. ICD-10 codes are designed to paint a more accurate picture of a patient’s diagnosis, using “families” of codes.

A family of codes would be any code in between the most generic, to the most specific ICD-10. This grace period allows physicians more time to learn and train their employees to eventually use the correct diagnosis code from the correct family.

Putting A Hold On Trouble

Practitioners everywhere have been worried about the harm incorrect ICD-10 codes may have on their practice. After all, the number of codes are nearly eight times as many as the number of ICD-9 codes.

(The orthopedic section of coding is expanding more than virtually any other section. Learn more about how these changes will impact  orthopedic practices.)

More than likely, some errors will be made. The major concerns are unpaid claims and, worse, audits. For the twelve months following the implementation of ICD-10 codes, Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS) have stated that if a claim cannot be processed authorized advanced payments for claims will be given to physicians. CMS has also stated that they will then seek to work out the unprocessed claims in a temporary,  new ‘coordination center’.

The requirement of correct coding within code ‘families’ allows practitioners the flexibility to learn a new set of codes while still demonstrating a basic knowledge of the new system.

Ignore The ICD-10 ‘Grace Period’

While medical practices everywhere are breathing a sigh of relief after being granted a grace period for the learning curve of about 55,000 new codes, there is still a major reason to take caution. Twelve months may sound like an incredibly long time, but just how much additional training can you fit in within your already booked calendar year?

If practitioners find that a basic coding system is working for them, procrastination of more in-depth coding knowledge could easily follow.  At MEREM Healthcare Solutions, we recommend the most perfect practices of ICD-10 codes from the start. Ignoring the ICD-10 grace period will result in your staying ahead, and being fully prepared for the days without such leniencies.

At MEREM Healthcare Solutions, our professional medical coders are already trained to implement ICD-10 codes today. Outsourcing your medical coding has never been more beneficial. Contact us today.

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October 1, 2015 – if you’re a medical practice, you should have that date outlined in red on your calendar. That’s the day that upcoming mandatory medical coding changes – known as ICD-10 – will finally become implemented.

ICD-10 is the culmination of a years-long process to update the previous ICD-9 and expand the current capabilities of the system by adding more codes and, by association, more data. This has been a long time coming; currently, the U.S. is the only country that is still with ICD-9.

Medical Billing and Coding Services – ICD-10 Will Have Impact

The impact on medical practices across the country cannot be understated. The massive expansion of the system means practices will need to prepare for the transition in order to make the switch in time – so much, in fact, that the AMA is considering demanding a grace period to help physicians with their payments. It doesn’t seem like another delay is forthcoming from Congress (the system has already been delayed three times), so practices have very little time to adjust and be ready for implementation.

If the typical medical practice is in dire need of quick adjustments and preparation, orthopedic practices are in an even more precarious situation. This is because the orthopedic section of the system’s codes are expanding more than virtually any other section. Orthopedic practices will thus need more time since the change will slow the billing process by as much as 50% – necessitating hiring more staff to do the same amount of coding.

Also, there’s the fact that orthopedic practices who have Medicare patients frequently involve durable medical equipment (DME) that is billed separately than physician services. This means both the services and the equipment will require separate ICD-10 codes.

Even a well-prepared orthopedic practice will run into problems with the new ICD-10 codes, especially if the practice waits until October 1^st is almost here. There will be growing pains – but fortunately, these pains can be alleviated to a significant degree if the practice takes initiative and either adjusts their in-house coding practices accordingly or finds a provider who is well equipped to handle ICD-10.

It doesn’t look like ICD-10 will be delayed further, meaning the beginning of October will be a red-letter day for orthopedic practices across the country. Prepare your practice today by making changes and working with qualified professional billing companies who can help with the transition.

Considering Outsourcing Medical Billings? 

If you are considering outsourcing medical billing and coding services for your hospital or practice, then turn to MEREM Healthcare Solutions. Learn more about how allowing MEREM Health to handle your medical billing and coding needs can help with your cash flow and reduce costs.

Contact us today for a free quote!

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