Listserv Lately 14
by Suzan Hvizdash, CPC, CRN Senior Auditor, Instructor
Well, I was wondering if everyone was suffering from the winter-blues and not wanting to talk much. The list was a bit quite last week. I guess everyone has been with me and decorating their houses with Steelers’s Black and Gold!!!
.
I think there was a brief conversation concerning…CONSULTATIONS!! Okay, I’m just kidding. There was a lot of talk on consultations. There are new guidelines that were recently made available by CMS . Barbara posted the link http://www.cms.hhs.gov/MedlearnMattersArticles/downloads/MM4215.pdf. Also there was a lot of debate about when is a visit a transfer of care as opposed to a consult. Can this happen after the initial consult? Should it happen at the time of the request or after the specialist sees the patient. This has been extremely interesting and very informative. This discussion is still seemed to be fairly strong even into this week.
Another big topic-Medicare Stops the 4.4 Percent Payment Decrease!! This is great news. They also announced they will be going back and reprocessing all the claims thus far this year. The list serve was on to of this one!!!!!
Is anyone having trouble with the new CMS website? We’ll if it helps, you are not alone. You think you found your old links and they’ve been changed. You try to use one of your old bookmarks and it’s not available. How about trying to use one of CMS ’s links and not getting to where you need to be. These are all problems folks on the list have experienced. What’s nice is that when someone solves one of these problems, they let all of know. What a help!!!!
Some of the listers are starting to gather their CEUs for their AAPC renewals. If you need a few more, we have recorded Webinars as well as a few live ones in the works. Check out Barbara’s column for more information on that. If you rely on the AAPC quizzes, one lister explained that they are not counted for full credit. Great news!
Other topics included listers needing information about Septoplasty, IDTF, Podophyllum, and many other coding dilemmas. As I always say-these are the experts to come to. There were actually questions AND quick answers on Dental coding (using codes 41899, 23.70, 23.19, 23.01, etc). A lister asked about modifiers for ophthalmology-use RT and LT.
Until next time,
Joining the list serve: $0
Asking questions on the list serve: $0
Reading your bi-weekly CRN newsletter: $0
Advice received on the list serve: Priceless
The value of reading your bi-weekly CRN newsletter: Priceless
-- Suzan