s a midwifery practice owner, you must decide whether or not you'll accept insurance for healthcare or if you would like that your service be cash-based which means that the client pays on their own and at a predetermined fee for each appointment. There are advantages and disadvantages to accepting both forms of payment therefore your final decision will depend on the goals you have to achieve for the practice. There is no law which says that if you start with healthcare insurance, it is not possible to switch to cash-based services later on. date.
Most hospital-based midwifery services accept insurance. Nearly half of birth center practice accepts insurance. A smaller percentage of home birth clinics provide insurance processing. Families usually have to provide an insurance coverage with an itemized bills of service for reimbursement directly if out of network benefits are available. Insurance plans with fewer benefits do not have out-of-network benefits, and being part of the network typically requires some type of malpractice insurance. Smaller midwifery practices may not be able to manage the monthly payments needed for that protection. The more extensive your practice or is expected to become more likely that to be insured and billing for services be essential to ensure that your business is profitable. The choice between cash payment and billing insurance policies has numerous pros and cons every midwife should consider. Billing insurance plans do not just ensure that midwives receive the right amount of money, it also leaves a variety of benefits to the healthcare industry. Functions of Healthcare Insurance and why Midwives Should opt to Billing Insurance Plans In 2017, the average insurance premium for US families with employer-sponsored health insurance cost $18 764, an increase of 3% over the previous year. What this mean value hides, however, is the enormous variance in the amount of health care received by different people in the United States. That variance is reflected in huge disparities in health care spending. In 2016, the top 5% of US health spenders accounted for 50% of total spending, or about $50 000 per person. The bottom half of the population, based on health expenditures, accounted for only 3% of total health spending, or $276 per person in 2016. People in both groups buy health insurance, but the benefits they gain from doing so are different. In addition to helping people stay healthy and improving their health when they get sick, our system of health insurance serves at least several functions to enable everyone to benefit from being insured. These functions, however, are not always compatible.
Some of the benefits of outsourced medical billing include:
There is no certain reason for you to choose between choosing cash payments or billing insurance policies for your practice than knowing what you truly need. You need to look at your specific mission, goals, area, and services wanting to provide to the community. Typically, care is a hybrid between insurance reimbursement and cash discount prepayment models of payment. It will give families choices that can fit a family that doesn’t have good and poor health insurance coverage. References Midwiferybusinessconsultation. (2020, December 11). Cash versus billing insurance for midwifery care? MIDWIFERY BUSINESS CONSULTATION. Retrieved September 30, 2022, from https://midwiferybusinessconsultation.com/cash-versus-billing-insurance-for-midwifery-care-2/ Hoffman, A. (2022, March 8). 6 proactive medical billing tips to maximize revenue: HAP. Healthcare Administrative Partners. Retrieved September 30, 2022, from https://www.hapusa.com/6-proactive-medical-billing-tips Pranammya Dey, B. S. (2019, April 2). The 6 functions of health insurance. JAMA. Retrieved September 30, 2022, from https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2729357 When we talk about matters pertaining to your client’s insurance, you have probably heard the terms “in-network” and “out-of-network” care thrown around quite a bit by different healthcare provider including midwives. But what do these terms actually mean, and more importantly what do they mean for you as a midwife? How will these affect your practice and you be able to apply these terms to your midwifery practice?
What does in-network mean? In-network refers to a midwives that has direct contract with the health insurance plan to provide health care services to its plan members at a pre-negotiated rate. Because of this relationship, clients pay a lower cost-sharing when they receive services from an in-network midwife. What does out-of-network mean? Out-of-network refers to midwives who does not have a contract with the health insurance plan. If a client use an out-of-network provider, health care services could cost more since midwives don’t have a pre-negotiated rate with the client’s health plan. Or, depending on the health plan, the health care services may not be covered at all. Depending on the coverage the client have purchased, the plan has established deals with a wide range of midwives and other specialists. These are the health care providers that the insurance company considers in your client’s “network.” The insurer has identified a group of providers who are “in-network” and has contracted with these providers on the client’s behalf to get services at “discounted” rates. The primary advantage of using an in-network provider is that your client receive this negotiated or discounted rate for your services, and the insurance provider generally picks up a larger portion of the bill than with an out-of-network provider. This means that as a midwife, once you’re in an agreement with the insurance company to accept your client’s plans and contracted rate as payment for your full services. This contracted rate that was negotiated by your client and its insurance company includes both the insurer’s share of the cost, and the part that your client will be responsible for paying. The part that your client’s responsibility for paying may be in the form of a co-payment, co-insurance or deductible depending on their negotiation. Simply speaking, as a midwife, when you accepts your client’s health insurance plan we say you’re in network. You will also be called as “participating providers”. When you don’t take your client’s plan, we say you’re out of network. The two main differences between them are cost and whether the plan helps you receive enough value for the care you provide as out-of-network provider. Healthcare is an important aspect aspects of our daily lives. As a healthcare provider, we are expected to give the best services to our clients and in order for our practice to keep on growing we must receive proper compensation out of that service. Remind your clients that they can avoid unexpected medical bills by knowing how their plan works. Certain choices they make can affect what they'll pay out-of-pocket. Know the difference between in-network and out-of-network care to help them save on health care expenses. Reference Outreach & Education. CMS.gov Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Health Insurance. (n.d.). Retrieved May 13, 2022, from https://marketplace.cms.gov/outreach-and-education https://www.desertridgeperiodontics.com/pdf/In%20Network%20vs%20Out%20of%20Network.pdf Insurance fraud is any act made to deceive an insurance procedure. It occurs when a claimant attempts to obtain some benefit or advantage they are not entitled to, or when an insurer knowingly denies some benefit that is due. It is also a deliberate deception perpetrated against or by an insurance company or agent for the purpose of financial gain. Fraud may be committed at different points by applicants, policyholders, third-party claimants, or professionals who provide services to claimants. Insurance agents and company employees may also commit insurance fraud. Common frauds include “padding,” or inflating claims; misrepresenting facts on an insurance application; submitting claims for injuries or damage that never occurred; and staging accidents. People who commit insurance fraud include:
Inside the healthcare industry lies good opportunity for insurance fraud as well. Insurance fraud causes tens of billions of dollars in losses each year. It can raise health insurance premiums, expose you to unnecessary medical procedures, and increase taxes. If you’re in the healthcare industry, you must learn to identify what are the common types of healthcare and insurance fraud. Common types of healthcare and insurance fraud: 1. Fraud Committed by Medical Providers
How to Prevent Insurance Fraud? The Affordable Care Act of 2010 included fraud-fighting efforts, such as allowing the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to exclude providers who lie on their applications from enrolling in Medicare and Medicaid and the Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Act, which requires agencies to conduct recovery audits for programs every three years and develop corrective action plans for preventing future fraud and waste. Other efforts included:
Additionally, in 2012, HHS and the Department of Justice formed the National Fraud Prevention Partnership to combat health care fraud. The group also consists of private and public groups such as health care companies and their organizations, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, the National Insurance Crime Bureau and the National Health Care Anti-Fraud Association. The groups will share information on claims from Medicare, Medicaid. and private insurance to be administered by a third- party vendor. Fraudulent acts have no escape with the law. Whether you’re a healthcare provider trying to slip away money from your clients, or a client who doesn’t one to compensate the services provided to you. Either way, one must be vigilant enough to take part in protecting his/her right and preventing these things to happen. Keep all your records intact and avoid providing your information to anyone asking for it. Always verify, verify, verify! Reference Background on: Insurance fraud. III. (n.d.). Retrieved June 18, 2022, from https://www.iii.org/article/background-on-insurance-fraud Through the years, the field of midwifery as a profession has been the subject of a variety of misconceptions that can go as far as the idea of comparing midwives to quacks. Even today, the job of a midwife can be misinterpreted as simply helping births. Often times, midwives experience misconception about the true quality of service they provide, as it is not only vital for all women and newborns to access care – it is critical that this care is of a sufficient quality to provide a safe and positive childbirth experience, and that it is provided with respect and dignity.
Midwives should be recognized for the excellent the services they provide. It's not a flimsy hoax. There are a few reasons to believe it;
Ways To Increase Awareness
Midwifery is proficient, educated, and compassionate care for childbearing women, newborn babies, and families throughout the pre-pregnancy, pregnancy, childbirth, postpartum, and the early weeks of life. Indeed, midwives are valuable sector of the society and that they need to receive the recognition they deserve. Reference Barker, J. (2021, February 13). Midwives do not get the recognition they deserve! Blog About Midwives & Doulas. Retrieved September 30, 2022, from https://www.fruitfulwombs.com/midwives-do-not-get-the-recognition-they-deserve/#:~:text=The%20Pros%20For%20Midwifery%3A&text=Quality%20midwifery%20care%20is%20essential,interchangeable%20with%20women%2Dcentered%20care. The implementation of Affordable Care Act (ACA) has greatly influenced the healthcare industry across United States. Study shows that ACA has reduced the number of uninsured people to historically low levels and helped more people access health care services, especially low-income people and people of color. However, the law’s effects on the cost and quality of health care services are difficult to discern given the complexity of our health system.
Since its passage, midwives gained opportunities to provide better maternal health access to mothers as the ACA helped to improve the quality of coverage for pregnant and birthing people by requiring individual and small group plans, as well as Medicaid expansion plans, to cover maternity and newborn care. What is Affordable Care Act? Signed into law on March 23, 2010, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) contains numerous provisions impacting a wide range of health care related issues. The overarching goals of the legislation were to increase the number of people with insurance coverage, improve the design of existing policies, and increase the quality of care provided in the U.S., all while taking significant steps to control costs. Key issues for midwives include:
Under the law, all individual and small employer insurance plans, including those you get through the Marketplace, must cover maternity and newborn care -- before and after your baby is born.* In the past, most plans sold outside your job didn’t offer much maternity coverage. Some didn't cover it at all. The ACA doesn't spell out all of the specific benefits that must be covered while you're pregnant and after the baby is born. But many preventive care services must be covered without extra out-of-pocket costs, like co-pays, co-insurance, or deductibles. For mothers, that includes preventive services for preconception and prenatal care and well-baby check-ups plus comprehensive lactation support, counseling, and breastfeeding equipment. Listed below are the codes included in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that midwives can bill as they provide services.
2. GONORRHEA SCREENING LAB TEST*
3. HIV SCREENING LAB TEST*
4. SYPHILIS SCREENING LAB TEST*
5. BEHAVIORAL COUNSELING TO PREVENT SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED INFECTIONS(If the patient has sign, symptom, or has been exposed to an infection, use appropriate ICD-10 code and 99201–99215)
6. CONTRACEPTIVE COUNSELING(If the patient has a side effect from current method or menstrual irregularity, use ICD-10 code for sign or symptom and 99201–99215. When a patient presents with a problem, it is not appropriate to report a preventive CPT code)
7. WELL WOMAN VISIT(Some payers expect that many of these ACA preventive services—counseling, screening, and immunizations—occur during the annual preventive exam and may not reimburse separately for these on the same day or at subsequent visits.)
8. HUMAN PAPILLOMAVIRUS (HPV) VACCINATIONS (If not administered during an annual wellness exam, some payers will also reimburse for an office visit)
9. HPV DNA LAB TESTING
10. HEPATITIS (Hep) A IMMUNIZATION (If not administered during an annual wellness exam, some payers will also reimburse for an office visit)
11. HEPATITIS (Hep) B IMMUNIZATION I(If not administered during an annual wellness exam, some payers will also reimburse for an office visit.)
12. Sexually transmitted infection prevention counseling
References Adviser, C. S. S., Seeberger, C., Adviser, S., Director, M. C. A., Coleman, M., Director, A., Shepherd Director, M., Shepherd, M., Director, Director, E. L. A., Lofgren, E., Gordon Director, P., Gordon, P., Director, J. P. S., Parshall, J., Director, S., Williamson, H., Taylor, J., Tausanovitch, A., … Conner, A. (2022, June 9). Building on the ACA: Administrative actions to improve maternal health. Center for American Progress. Retrieved September 28, 2022, from https://www.americanprogress.org/article/building-aca-administrative-actions-improve-maternal-health/ Affordable care act (ACA) - glossary. Glossary | HealthCare.gov. (n.d.). Retrieved September 28, 2022, from https://www.healthcare.gov/glossary/affordable-care-act/ Lamboley, L. (2022, September 19). List of Aca Preventive Services and CPT codes [Prevounce Quick Guide]. Prevounce Blog. Retrieved September 28, 2022, from https://blog.prevounce.com/list-of-aca-preventive-services-and-cpt-codes-prevounce-quick-guide List of Aca Preventive Services and CPT Codes - Std Tac. (n.d.). Retrieved September 28, 2022, from http://stdtac.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/List-of-ACA-Preventative-Services-and-CPT-Codes-_STDTAC.pdf Audits can be a painful part of the daily practice routine even for the best chiropractic teams. An oversight or omission could lead to massive fines and penalties that could have a significant impact on your business. Additionally, all claims your business submits are subject to rigorous prepayment reviews or post-payment audits.
Protecting yourself requires ensuring the best practices and looking at things from the other viewpoint. Here are some suggestions that can make a significant difference. 1. Know How Auditors Operate Audit provides the framework to improve the quality of patient care in a collaborative and systematic way. Through Audit we can identify emerging trends, which enables us to identify risks and implement actions before it becomes a bigger issue. If you know how auditors operate, you will know the key aspects where to improve your billing practices. Ensure to learn from audits and review data thoroughly. Scrutinize data to ensure gaining all that you can from it and move forward making the necessary changes to support best practice Using this document is your way of seeing inside the audit process and knowing which practice areas are scrutinized. You’ll then be better equipped to ensure that your documentation makes the grade. You can also review the Medicare Program Integrity Manual for more insight into how auditors work. 2. Always Prepare Accurate Documentation Accuracy encompasses all forms of information oversight: patient identification, amendments and corrections to records, validation of author, plus auditing for document validity before sending out as part of a claim for payment. Knowing that multiple systems will probably be involved in an audit, all data should be documented, including meaningful use, reports generated by the practice’s EHR system, and other evidence supporting medical decisions. Procedures that are more likely to be scrutinized are sleep studies, outpatient physical therapy and MRI’s, which the Office of Inspector General (OIG) believes may be overused and are among the OIG/RAC targets requiring careful documentation. 3. Review Key Qualifiers Every claim should clear internal quality checks before submission. Be sure the service you provided to the patient:
4. Use Correct Midwifery Billing Software The right computer program can catch errors that are the result of human error. In addition, there is a plethora of available software that practices can use to streamline their documentation and reduce audit risks across the board. Many of these solutions are cloud-based, which is a great advantage. It means you’re always running the most up-to-date software to help keep your compliance current and that your valuable documentation data is being continuously backed up off-site. 5. Review Audit Risk to Lower Reimbursement As more prepayment and health plan audits emerge in the healthcare landscape, hospitals can use them as new opportunities for cost savings in audit management, record request responsiveness, and health plan collaboration. Many providers have found some principles ways to use audit storms to strengthen operational processes and mitigate reimbursement losses. 6. Plan for the Worst-case Scenario As the saying goes, “prepare for the worst and hope for the best.” Most audits are triggered due to a history of non-compliance or related past problems; however, more practices are being randomly audited, even with no apparent violations or errors. 7. Be proactive Hope alone will not prevent an audit nor ensure that your practice passes one. If your practice is audited at random, having all of your documentation complete, accurate and fully compliant is the only way to be confident that your practice won’t be caught off guard and that if audited, the results will be favorable. 8. Experienced Medical Billing Service Provider Part of Your Team As Midwives, your biggest priority is caring for your clients, and getting you compensated for your hard work is ours. Midwives need every advantage when navigating the complex world of insurance claims. Our role during this process is to connect your practice and insurance seamlessly. We act as the back office that manages administrative duties so that you can focus on your passions, mamas, and their babies. We provide straightforward, affordable solutions that streamline the insurance process and get you paid. Our office employs certified coders, medical compliance officers, and practice management professionals to implement protocols that bring you the most valuable payout. We are certified in HIPAA requirements, ethics, and practice management so you can entrust us with your clients' information References Documentation tips that reduce audit risks. ChiroHealthUSA. (n.d.). Retrieved September 28, 2022, from https://www.chirohealthusa.com/member-providers/documentation-tips-that-reduce-audit-risks/ 5 documentation tips to reduce RAC audit risk. Coronis. (n.d.). Retrieved September 28, 2022, from https://www.coronishealth.com/blog/5-documentation-tips-to-reduce-rac-audit-risk/ Referral in the most basic understanding is a written order from the primary care specialist to see another specialist and get the patient certain medical services. In many Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs), the patients need to get a referral before they can get medical care from anyone except their primary care doctor. If they don’t get a referral first, the plan may not pay for your services. Referrals are required by some insurance providers to ensure that the patient will receive accurate service from the right people.
Patient referral is a common and important medical practice. Sometimes, a patient’s condition is outside a physician’s area of expertise, and the physician needs to refer the patient to a specialist who is more knowledgeable about or experienced in treating the condition. In the United States, for example, doctors refer one in every three patients to a specialist each year. Every referral is meant to ensure the best outcome for the patient. How to Get a Physician Referral Historically, physicians have known that in reporting a consultation service, the three R’s must be documented: Request, Render, and Report. Starting in 2006, CPT requirements have included one more R requirement: a Reason. There must be a request for consulting services from another physician or health care provider, the suspected or known diagnosis requires determination by a specialist who renders his / her opinion, the referring physician and consultant specifies a reason for the consultation, the treatment is undetermined or may be known, and a written report to the requesting physician or referring source reiterating the reason for consultation plus the findings and opinions must be forwarded by the consultant. In most cases, a consultation is a one – time visit. A New Patient Referral usually has an identified problem which requires a specialist to provide care, and does not require that a written report be sent to the requesting physician or health care provider. The policy changes or clarifications also state that a transfer of care occurs when a physician requests another doctor to assume the care of the patient. Ongoing management of the patient by the consultant physician cannot be reported using a consultation service code. Therefore, a referral for evaluation and management (E/M) cannot be considered a consultation because there has been a transfer of care. There also has been concern regarding language that the consulting physician must document the request and reason for the consultation in the patient’s medical record. Without that documentation, the CPT code for a consultation could not be used. However, according to the E/M documentation guidelines, the consulting physician is not required to confirm that the requesting physician documents his / her request. The documentation criteria for a consultation service requires that the requesting physician and consulting physician both document the request for consultation in their medical records, but each physician is required to keep their own accurate records and code accordingly. In the revised Medicare Claims Processing Manual, the section which discusses consultation followed by treatment, there are also rules governing those occasions when it may be necessary for the consulting physician to assume ongoing care of the patient. It should be emphasized that the above guidelines differentiating a Consultation from a New Patient Referral apply primarily to Medicare patients. Currently it appears that non – Medicare payers have not yet implemented these regulations. Understanding each of these processes and how to determine what is required by the insurance is key to avoiding lost revenue and negatively impacting patients financially. Having knowledgeable support staff in the area of preservice is crucial to any organization. The return on investment in insurance reimbursement and patient experience alone is worth the cost of having this expertise at your institution. References and Useful Links Lori. (n.d.). New Patient Consultation and new patient referral – what is the difference. Medicare Payment, Reimbursement, CPT code, ICD, Denial Guidelines. Retrieved August 6, 2022, from https://medicarepaymentandreimbursement.com/2010/10/new-patient-consultation-and-new.html PatientPop. (2022, April 20). When and how to refer patients to a fellow physician. PatientPop. Retrieved August 6, 2022, from https://www.patientpop.com/blog/physician-to-physician-referrals-reducing-liability-and-improving-patient-care/ The Center of Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS) form 1500 must be used to bill SFHP for medical services. The form is used by Physicians and Allied Health Professionals to submit claims for medical services. All items must be completed unless otherwise noted in these instructions. A CMS 1500 with field descriptions and instructions is included in the link below: https://www.sfhp.org/wp-content/files/providers/forms/Instructions_for_CMS_1500_Claim_Form.pdf Billing plays a vital role to keep your business running. It determines your capacity as a business owner to make your cash flow intact avoiding the business to collapse. While you continue to create greater impact, your business will continue to prosper if you know how to manage your finances carefully. From record keeping, cash in and cash out, invoice, giving statement and collection, billing takes place. It requires enough expertise to keep tracking all of these because inaccurate billing can cause serious problems. In the absence of accurate and reliable billing, major distractions to expected liquidity can ruin reinvestment plans, and in extreme cases put operations at risk.
Owning and billing for your own midwifery practice helps you and your practice in numerous ways. It gives you the opportunity to offer outstanding midwifery care, exactly how you envisioned your practice to be. It provides you the freedom and flexibility to manage your finances and cash flow. However, like most of us desire to simply manage the in and out of our practices’ revenue and profitability, reality hits that this is beyond what we envisioned. In reality, it is not easy to crawl down tracking all the records, keeping all the collections, updating codes and description, managing finances, and all other aspects that are involved in billing and coding. Not to mention you being busy as the expert of your own practice, your business will cripple if you can’t manage these factors properly. Time will surely come that you will question yourself how you may be able to get out of that duty. To prevent that from happening, you should know how to assess your business’ needs. Are you capable of doing billing tasks on your own? Or is it time to ask for help from the experts? Here’s what you need to do to assess your practice further. Assess Your Practice To find out what the best choice is for your business, ask yourself these questions about your billing process, staff, physical space, and plans for the future:
Assessing your own practice by answering this set of questions will help you understand the needs of your practice. If you answered YES to most of the questions, then outsourcing will be good for you. Outsourcing by means of hiring medical billers and bringing in their expertise to your practice. However, if you answered NO to most of the questions stated, then keeping your billing operations within your practice is the best choice for you. There are a lot of great benefits if you choose to hire an expert biller like Midwives Advantage but choosing to keep your billing procedures in-house is not a bad idea either. You have to simply weigh the needs of your practice. Reference To hire or not to hire billing service. (n.d.). Retrieved August 5, 2022, from https://www.kareo.com/documents/to-hire-or-not-to-hire-billing-service.pdf Healthcare system in the United States is very complex. Before the patient decides to see a specialist, the first question that needs to be answered is if he/she has health insurance. There’s a huge variety of group health insurance plans offered through employers, but the system also includes Medicare, Medicaid, the Veterans Health Administration system, and individual plans offered through the insurance markets set up by the Affordable Care Act. The kind of insurance that your patient has can directly influence how much your patient pays for healthcare and what doctors or specialists he/she is permitted to see. This is why health insurance providers are a lot more complicated than any other type of insurance. Over time it gets more complicated as new laws, regulations, court cases and differing opinions start to add complexity.
To ensure that a client's insurance provider will pay up all the required medication and treatment, doctors and other medical professionals require prior authorization to their clients. Under some medical and prescription drug plans, treatments and medications may need approval from the health insurance provider before you provide care. Prior authorization is usually required if your client needs a complex treatment or prescription. Coverage will not happen without it. One reason why health insurance providers require this type of document before proceeding with different medical procedures is that a less expensive treatment option may be sufficient rather than simply defaulting to the most expensive option. To make sure that reimbursement will not be denied and that you will receive proper compensation, this document must be secured prior to giving your client the required procedure. How to Get Prior Authorization? If you’re in-network to your patient’s insurance coverage, then you have to prepare the necessary documents for your patient. Prior-authorization procedures are different from every insurance provider. Submission of Prior Authorization Request You submit your pre-authorization request by mail or fax. Many authorization companies provide Prior Authorization Request Form (both offline and online) to submit written pre-authorization. Every insurance company has its own requirements for pre-authorization requests. However, you should include the following information in all types of requests.
How Long Do Prior Authorizations Take?
The process of obtaining and maintaining prior authorizations is vital to the success of any medical practice. Overall, the prior authorization process impacts almost every aspect of the revenue cycle and operations of your medical practice. HOW TO REQUEST A GAP EXCEPTION/ PRIOR AUTHORIZATION FOR OUT OF NETWORK CARE How to request a gap exception/ prior authorization for out of network ... (n.d.). Retrieved August 6, 2022, from https://favoredmedicalbilling.com/forms/GAP_Request_Guide_for_Midwives_and_Birth_Centers.pdf References Lower burden with outsource prior authorization: Drcatalyst. English. (n.d.). Retrieved August 6, 2022, from https://www.drcatalyst.com/importance-of-prior-authorization Prior authorization. Santa Clara Family Health Plan. (n.d.). Retrieved August 6, 2022, from https://www.scfhp.com/for-providers/provider-resources/prior-authorization/ Clements, J. (2022, July 14). What is prior authorization? when is it needed and not? Outsource Strategies International. Retrieved August 6, 2022, from https://www.outsourcestrategies.com/blog/what-is-prior-authorization-when-is-it-needed-and-not/ Each profession has its own jargon. The language used specifically in a communicative context and may not be well understood outside that context. Language that is understood by the people within specific areas of expertise. Medical codes are the universal language of understanding between payers and providers and hence used for communication and billing purposes. The financial criticality for both payers and providers mean that providers have to be compliant and accurate in coding for medical treatment provided.
To enter into the medical field, specifically midwifery, one must have enough knowledge and understanding with medical codes. Codes and descriptions that play a vital role in the billing procedures of all medical services rendered. Having the proper medical coding ensures that insurers have all the diagnostic codes required for appropriate payment. In this article, we will have a closer understanding in dealing with CPT codes, diagnostic codes and service locations. What is CPT Code? The Current Procedural Terminology (CPT®) codes offer doctors and health care professionals a uniform language for coding medical services and procedures to streamline reporting, increase accuracy and efficiency. Administrative management purposes, such as claims processing and developing guidelines for medical care review, also use CPT codes. The CPT terminology is the most widely accepted medical nomenclature used across the country to report medical, surgical, radiology, laboratory, anesthesiology, genomic sequencing, evaluation and management (E/M) services under public and private health insurance programs. All CPT codes are five-digits and can be either numeric or alphanumeric, depending on the category. CPT code descriptors are clinically focused and utilize common standards so that a diverse set of users can have a common understanding across the clinical health care paradigm. What is Diagnostic Code? In healthcare, diagnosis codes are used as a tool to group and identify diseases, disorders, symptoms, poisonings, adverse effects of drugs and chemicals, injuries and other reasons for patient encounters. Diagnostic coding is the translation of written descriptions of diseases, illnesses and injuries into codes from a particular classification. In medical classification, diagnosis codes are used as part of the clinical coding process alongside intervention codes. Both diagnosis and intervention codes are assigned by a health professional trained in medical classification such as a clinical coder. As the knowledge of health and medical advances arise, the diagnostic codes are generally revised and updated to match the most up to date current body of knowledge in the field of health. The codes may be quite frequently revised as new knowledge is attained. What are Service Locations? A service location is where services are rendered to a patient. This can be a hospital, the provider's office, or a nursing home, for example. In medical billing, service location is presented through the place of service (POS) dodes. Place of service codes are two-digit codes placed on health care professional claims to indicate the setting in which a service was provided. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) maintain POS codes used throughout the health care industry. Here’s the complete Place of Service (POS) Codes lists CPT Codes, diagnostic codes and service locations are three different coding classifications used in diverse areas. Healthcare is highly regulated, therefore understanding these three factors are very important. Although it may seem overwhelming with the number of codes you might need to use, the terminologies you might encounter every once in a while, when you have a basic understanding of them, you’ll have the foundation you need to start billing insurance in your private practice. Now you’ll have the opportunity to open up care to more clients, grow your practice and your impact. References Hazelwood, A (2005). ICD-9-CM Diagnostic Coding and Reimbursement for Physician Services 2006 Edition (PDF). United States of America: American Health Information Management Association. p. 2. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-07-18. Retrieved 2013-05-27. M, M. (2021, December 3). Revisiting the basics: Understanding medical coding. Medical Billing Wholesalers. Retrieved August 5, 2022, from https://www.medicalbillingwholesalers.com/the-revenue-cycle-blog/revisiting-the-basics-understanding-medical-coding#:~:text=Medical%20Codes%20are%20the%20universal,Coding%20for%20medical%20treatment%20provided. Place of service codes. CMS. (n.d.). Retrieved August 5, 2022, from https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Coding/place-of-service-codes |
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