Healthicity Blog

Preventive services and screenings are important, especially for our little ones.

For those of you unfamiliar with coding and billing, modifier -59 is a two-digit numeric code modifier that can be appended to a CPT or HCPCS procedure code, for example, and will frequently bypass many payor edits.

1. CMS and Its Claims Processing Contractors Issued Conflicting Guidance on the Proper Use of the KX Modifier for Part B Immunosuppressive Drug Claims - “Medicare Part B paid for some immunosuppressive drugs billed with the KX modifier that were not eligible for Part B payment.

When a lot of healthcare organizations consider their risk under the False Claims Act, they often think of coding and billing errors submitted on 1500s or UBs. It’s probably the first place I’d consider looking as well for the greatest risk to a Medicare or Medicaid healthcare provider.

For this episode of Compliance Conversations, I sat down with Chad Peterson, a senior consultant at a large hospital, in their professional coding and reimbursement group. He educates physicians, mid-level providers/ advanced practice providers and even ancillary staff about E/M coding.

Everyone is talking (and panicking) about Hierarchical Condition Categories (HCCs) lately and for good reason: HCCs are progressively being applied to numerous healthcare reform initiatives and it’s pretty confusing.

Recently, I talked with Christopher Chandler, a senior consultant at a large medical group in the professional coding and reimbursements department. Christopher explained a whole slew of surgical coding misunderstandings like confusion about how ICD coding works with CPT coding and what to do with...

In this episode of Compliance Conversations, I sat down with Senior Consultant, Brenden O’Neil, who works in Intermountain’s professional coding and reimbursement department. O’Neil and I had a fascinating discussion on CPT codes and the complicated gray area of coding a laminectomy.