DAVID STERN, MD (Practice Velocity) Q.Can we bill an evaluation and management code along with the code for administration of an intravenous injection? A.Although it may seem obvious to expect reimbursement in these situations, Medicare waited until 2006 to begin reimbursing physicians for a separate E/M (99201- 99205, 99212-99215) when performed at the same time as IV drug administration. The Medicare Claims Processing Manual states, “Medicare will pay for medically necessary office/outpatient visits billed on …
Read MoreAddressing the Data Drought
Urgent message: The second UCA Benchmarking Survey takes one small step toward filling the information gap in urgent care medicine. Introduction: Although the practice of urgent care medicine is not a new phenomenon, there is a significant absence of reliable information about the industry. One first step toward filling that void was initiated last year when the Urgent Care Association’s Benchmarking Committee released the results of its first-ever benchmarking survey of UCA members and others …
Read MoreAbstracts in Urgent Care: June, 2007
Evaluation of the Utility of Radiography in Acute Bronchiolitis Key point: Infants with typical bronchiolitis (clinically O2sat>92% and mild/moderate distress) do not need imaging. Citation: Schuh S, Lalani A, Allen U, et al. J Pediatr. 2007;150: 429-433. URL: http://sitemaker.umich.edu/emjournalclub/article_database/ da.data/1619753/PDF/bronchiolitis_xray_j_pediatrics.pdf The purpose of this study was to determine the proportion of radiographs inconsistent with bronchiolitis in children with typical presentation of bronchiolitis and to compare rates of intended antibiotic therapy before radiography versus those given …
Read MoreUsing Education as an Occupational Health Marketing Tool
As marketing initiatives become increasingly self-serving, it behooves an urgent care clinic to differentiate itself by “playing the education card.” Why Education? Many employer decision-makers are still strikingly naïve about the value of a well-integrated, proactive approach to their company’s health and safety activities. Educational information does not come off as self-serving and is perceived as a “kinder and gentler” form of marketing. In our information-saturated world, it is imperative to find a way to …
Read MoreVicarious Liability
JOHN SHUFELDT, MD, JD, MBA, FACEP It’s 8:15 on Sunday morning. This is the first morning you have actually been able to sleep in since you opened the urgent care center five months ago. Truth be told, you drank a glass (or two) of wine too many last night and are still feeling the effects this morning. However, you don’t care; you have the day off and you can slouch around till noon and no …
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June 2007
Developing Data: June, 2007
UCA’s Survey Committee has conducted two annual member surveys, to date, designed to establish benchmarks in an industry for which data have been sorely lacking. Each month in Developing Data, we will share one or two tidbits from the second annual survey in an effort to help readers get a sense of what their peers are doing, and what kind of trends are developing as urgent care evolves. In this issue: If you’re planning to …
Read MoreClinical Challenge: June, 2007
The patient is a 15-year-old boy who presents with pain in the wrist 40 minutes after stopping a soccer ball with his hand. There is no snuffbox tenderness. View the x-ray taken (Figure 1) and consider what your diagnosis and next steps would be. Resolution of the case is described on the next page.
Read MoreClinical Challenge 2: May 2007
The patient is a 13-year-old male who presented to urgent care after taking a fall while running; he landed on his outstretched left hand. Upon examination, you find tenderness in the snuff box and observe swelling around the wrist. View the x-ray taken (Figure 1) and consider what your diagnosis and next steps would be. Resolution of the case is described on the next page.
Read MoreAdditional Income from After-Hours Codes (99050, 99051, 99053)
DAVID STERN, MD (Practice Velocity) Q.A patient with a finger laceration walked into our urgent care center at 8:05 p.m., five minutes after our closing time. Rather than turn the patient away, our team decided to care for the patient. Three of our staff, including the physician, stayed for 50 minutes after our posted closing time. If we had not stayed after our scheduled closing time, the patient would have been forced to go to …
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