How Is Cardiology Billing Affected By Fee Changes In 2014?

By Author: Michel Desuza is the well-known medical biller.
Total Articles: 8
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The two to six percent cut in Medicare fee introduced by the CMS fee schedule has brought in for cardiologists something they could do without given that cardiology practices are already dealing financial strife due to payment cuts in multiple forms and from sources.
The facts below will explain how payment cuts in various forms have shrunk payment on services for cardiology practices:
• If a patient has received multiple procedures/services in a day, payment for technical component of the low-cost services involved will be reduced by 20 to 25 percent.
• Non-compliance with PQRS and e-Prescribing standards will result in reduction in payment by 1.5 percent.
• Therapeutic and diagnostic services have been slotted for 20 to 25 percent payment cuts leaving billers and coders to separate therapeutic and diagnostic components of a treatment episode from the other ones which requires a sound knowledge of cardiology services and their nature.

Alas, if you want to improve your revenues you have to do it within the current regulations and despite the cuts. And many cardiologists, in various states ...
... and cities of the US, have found out that it’s possible to make your revenues healthier by getting the billing and coding fundamentals right.
But billing and coding fundamentals differ from medical discipline to discipline. For a multi-layered area like cardiology, where a treatment episode can involve cares of varied nature (therapeutic, diagnostic, surgery, consulting) with each one bringing its own dynamic to billing and coding together with generic regulatory changes which impact all medical areas - the fundamentals can be demanding.
Cardiology medical billing and coding requires reference to patient record and documentation to support claims, measures to keep the staff updated with latest changes in cardiology codes and regulations and their impact on billing and collection procedures, checking of a patient’s medical coverage to avoid claim denials, and HIPPA compliance.
MBC’s Revenue Management Consulting services can help you with this by assessing your in-house revenue management cycle and ensuring that there is sound coordination between various components of cardiology facilitating smooth flow of medical data. We also identify gaps in your process and address them by replacing, if necessary, old software (EMR) applications with new ones, blocking areas of revenue leakage and identifying areas of staff training.
Medicalbillerandcoders.com, handling the entire range of activities involved in billing and coding starting from preparation of claims through submission to post-submission follow-ups. Our service modules are flexible and, instead of opting for complete service packages, you can pick and choose such parts of our medical billing services as exactly fit your billing coding needs.