One important thing to learn is when you should also list a diagnosis code for the wound in I3. The I3 is important to complete when you’re doing medical billing for long term care patients as it reports additional conditions that affect a patient’s health. 

Since pressure ulcers are extremely common in long term care for patients that are invalids, there is a Section M that provides options for identifying both pressure ulcers and stasis ulcers but not for other types of ulcers. If another type of ulcer is to be reported on your medical billing claim, use the form and then also list the corresponding ICD-9 codes at I3, says Smith. In this case, you should list:

A confusing part of medical billing for long term care comes from the I3 itself where some I3 coding training indicates that you don’t need to include diagnoses codes for conditions that are addressed elsewhere on the MDS. However, many carriers, including Medicare do require that the type of wound be specifically spelled out. Additionally, once the ulcer is healed, be certain to take it out of section I3.

Undercoding is another way many practices don’t get the full value for their services. If your staff is undercoding your medical billing claims you are definitely missing out on reimbursements. Also, partially paid and rejected claims are also a problem that will stall your revenue flow to a trickle.

If you’re ready to leave the worry of keeping up with the medical billing and coding changes; consider that it might be time to outsource your medical billing to a third party partner. You can rest assured your claims will be coded correctly, the best fitting CPT codes will be used and your claims will be submitted in a timely manner. Additionally, if there are any problems with the claim, your staff won’t have to stop servicing your patients to go pull files and wade through reams of medical billing forms; your medical billing partner will handle those situations too!

Keeping up with the fast paced changes is tough and it shouldn’t affect your business but it does. Look into outsourcing your medical billing in 2009 and reap the rewards all around.

When you decide you’d like to use our medical billing services, we know that each provide and practice is completely individual in their needs and we will consult with your to find out what your concerns are regarding your billing. We will set your office up to communicate your medical billing claims via secure transmission to our office. If you’re interested in the rest of our Medical Billing Services we can also do the following to help you and your practice:

We will do all your data entry for you. Your medical billing claims will be filed for you. Nearly all will be filed via electronic claims methods but we still can handle manually handling paper claims whenever necessary.

We can mail our statements to your patients that will be mailed on your behalf from our office. If you have specifics that you want on your statements and you have a certain way you like to handle collection accounts and past due notices, let us know, we won’t change a thing and will continue to bill and handle claims exactly as you wish. We can also handle your payments. As the payments and EOBs are received related to your practice. We will enter them in our database. Your staff can log into to a patient’s account at any time and see the updated information at anytime as the changes are immediate.

If you have a problem with denials, simply outsourcing will lower your denial rate to around 1% of your total medical billing claims, in the event there is a denial, we will fight to get your claim approved.

Actually outsourcing your medical billing and coding needs through a consultant is one of the smartest business moves you can make. Don’t think you have to use a local company, many medical billing firms have branch offices in an area near you, but others may be miles to hundreds of miles away, and thanks to the power of the internet with secure connections and software advances that allow you to transfer your patient billing records while upholding the utmost in privacy standards, with just a click of your mouse, makes the job of shopping for a medical billing consultant to hand the billing paperwork for your busy practice all the easier.

Your staff won’t have to spend long hours at the copy machine when you outsource, most records can be transferred via computer to computer using secure, encrypted technology. Many medical billing consultants offer real time updates of patient accounts, so if information is needed on where a particular claim stands, your staff can click and see!

Outsourcing to a medical billing consultant will insure that your claims are coded and submitted properly because that’s their business! There are no interruptions, patients asking questions, and general day to day running of your practice. A medical billing consultant can devote 100% of their time to handling your coding and claims. That way your cash flow is steady and your practice will grow!

Time is money in your practice and if you outsource your medical billing through a consultant you are definitely making the most of your time and because of your smart choices, you’ll see an increase in your revenue flow for your practice.

Medical coding and billing is an extremely skilled practice. When you outsource your medical billing claims, you have to have confidence that your medical billing partner will check the coding, put the medical documentation in order, make notations where needed and submit your medical billing claim through secure measures. 

You also have to know you have trust your medical billing partner. Be wary of medical billing companies that can’t show you what their policies are for storage of information or how information is transmitted. Each day claims representatives see personal information pass across their desks. These could be patient Social Security numbers, illnesses, or patient history information. Each one of these items is extremely confidential and you have to know this information will be held in absolute confidence.

Medical billing fraud is another large issue today. Medical billing staff members have a job in which it is very easy to commit medical billing fraud. Your patients’ accounts and your payers’ accounts are left in their hands. A good rule of thumb when you’re looking at medical billing partners to outsource your medical billing to is to ask for reference. Failure to provide them or if you’re given numbers that just never seem to answer or you leave a message that never gets returned should throw up a red flag.

When you’re ready to outsource your medical billing, do your homework and ask questions. Picking the right medical billing partner for your practice will ensure that all your claims are processed correctly and you receive the best reimbursements possible for each of your medical billing claims.

Need help with your accounts receivable? Outsourcing your medical billing claims can help with that problem too. We can offer practice management solutions to help your staff deal with the coding changes and knowing the best way to package your medical billing claims to get the most out of your reimbursements.

If you need credentialing, we can help you with that too. As you know, credentialing can be a painful process of filling out forms and then waiting for approval from various insurances. We will file your credentialing paperwork and then follow up until you are approved and we can handle any speciality nationwide.

The time to outsource your medical billing claims has never been better. Look into how outsourcing can save you time and money today.

If you’re ready to get rid of the hassles that a rejected claim or multiple claims can cause, it might be time to consider outsourcing your medical billing claims to a third party partner that can get your claims submitted, double check your billing and get your reimbursements.

The beautiful thing about outsourcing your medical billing claims is the average return rate due to errors is less than 1%. Plus you’ll see up to 25% of your reimbursements increased due to your claims being handled in an efficient manner. Best of all, your staff will be free to help you run your practice instead of chasing paperwork for medical billing claims.

The CMS states that physicians absolutely do not need to document an element two times just so the person performing medical billing knows it is meant to be used both for review of systems and history of present illness. It is perfectly acceptable to use an element for both. 

The only time an element cannot be used twice is when you attempt to use it in the same area. For example, the complaint of chest pain cannot be used in ROS for musculoskeletal systems and the cardiovascular system. It can be used only for one location in the medical billing.

A medical biller also cannot use a timing phrase such as “began two days ago” to account for both the HPI duration and timing. Direct medical documentation must be used.

The most important thing to accomplish in medical billing is to make the bill match the service. When this occurs, payment is made quicker. Medical billing companies can assist medical practices with this task. Outsourcing your medical billing can be one of the most beneficial things for a practice. This takes the worry off correctly coding and billing for procedures and physicians will see reimbursements much more quickly.