DAVID STERN, MD (Practice Velocity) Q. If a practice buys or opens an urgent care facility that is not in a hospital nor affiliated with a hospital, should we be using routine E/M codes for our visits? Secondly, do we have to follow the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) Guidelines? A. Yes. You should use the same E/M codes as used by the physician offices (990201-99215). EMTALA does not apply to urgent …
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July/August 2012
June 2012
Benchmarks for E/M Codes; Place of Service (POS) Codes
DAVID STERN, MD (Practice Velocity) Q. Is there a benchmark for E/M codes in the urgent care setting? For instance, are there a certain percentage of 99213 vs. 99214 for established patients? Currently out urgent care providers’ coding is being compared to CMS Family Practice standard. A. To my knowledge, there is no published information detailing E/M distribution for urgent care facilities. If there was, however, it would simply document what was actually being coded …
Read MoreCoding of Multiple Wound Repairs, Coding an E/M, IV Infusion, Coding of the Comprehensive Metabolic Panel
DAVID STERN, MD (Practice Velocity) Q. We have a patient with several lacerations to both of his hands. On his left hand, we sutured a total of three lacerations that have a grand total of 3.5 cm and on his right hand, we sutured on laceration with a total of 3.0 cm. What is the best way to code this? A. Assuming that all the procedures were simple wound repairs, you would simply add the …
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May 2012
April 2012
Coding for I&D Follow-Up, R-codes and POS 20, Coding for Compression Bandage
DAVID STERN, MD (Practice Velocity) Q.We have so many MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) I&Ds (incision and drainage). The follow-up for changing the packing are numerous and time-consuming, and it feels wrong to have them just included in the global procedure like any other wound check or suture removal. What’s the right way to handle this? Annie Miranda, Hopewell Junction, NY A. This is a complicated question. To code these procedures, you can consider using the …
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March 2012
