Cardiology medical billing and coding come with various procedures and complex contractual adjustments. After ICD-10, billing, auditing, coding, compliance, and documentation in cardiology increased in importance. As a result, medical billers and coders need to be adept in cardiology medical billing and coding while keeping up with tedious methods, constant changes, and complications in their field and the practice itself.
It’s common for cardiologists and their practices to experience denials because of errors in billing and coding. But this is easier said than done. Cardiology billing offers a unique set of challenges such as human errors, lack of knowledge regarding current coding and documentation standards, etc. If you’re going through the same issues, take a look at these practical tips in handling Cardiology Medical Billing and Coding:
Thorough and proper documentation is beneficial
It’s crucial to keep tabs on everything in your practice, but you must be thorough. Even minor mistakes can cause problems in your claim acceptance. Documentation issues cause cardiology medical billing and coding errors, and incomplete or inaccurate details can lead to late reimbursements and claim denials.
Decrease human errors
Human errors are inevitable while dealing with numbers and codes. There are complex codes and procedures in cardiology medical billing, so human mistakes are bound to happen. Even if you know ICD-10 and CPT codes, you might accidentally forget to indicate them in the documentation and avoid double-checking when you have other tasks to worry about.
You can save yourself by outsourcing the tasks to a reputable medical billing service provider company. They combine human expertise with advanced robotic process automation and machine learning solutions to improve medical billing and coding accuracy.
Apply combination codes
Some patients have multiple health conditions with different relevant codes. Using applicable combination codes properly ensures timely reimbursement and accurate payment. Healthcare practice must use the codes for both diseases if a patient has two medical conditions. It is beneficial to use combination codes as you get the reimbursement according to the diagnosed procedures.
Be aware of the changes in cardiology coding:
Healthcare providers must be well versed with the updated coding standards in cardiology billing because ICD-10, HCPCS, CPT, and PCS frequently change the codes and guidelines.
The first step for efficient cardiology billing is to ensure that the team is updated with ongoing changes in cardiology billing and coding rules. The complex nature, guidelines for cardiology medical billing guidelines often go through further updates and changes. Team handling cardiology billing procedures must have excellent skills to keep themselves updated.
Regular audits
Auditing healthcare practice helps in identifying discrepancies in the revenue cycle. Due to the intricate nature of cardiology billing, errors in coding and billing might seem inevitable. Planning regular audits controls the error percentage, helps analyze its common cause, and ensures quality measures.
Coding comorbidities
Comorbidities are the relevant conditions documented by the provider. These entitle the physician to higher reimbursement. This lets the payer be informed about the additional cost.
Outsourcing cardiology billing
Determining whether to use in-house or outsourced billing is a critical decision. It is beneficial to outsource the cardiology billing to any medical billing partner to ensure quality billing and coding services. However, hiring a certified professional biller and coder ultimately offers time-saving and revenue-generating potential. The cardiology billing team is trained to increase productivity and quality service.
Finding a good cardiology coding team is difficult and expensive to recruit. Cardiology coding involves components of interventional radiology, electrophysiology, endovascular surgery, and diagnostic testing, which have complexities.
Plutus Health has an experienced certified coder team that ensures proper documentation and coding to enhance billing practices and reimbursements. Certified coders handle medical billing, coding, and collections for cardiac and cardiothoracic surgeries, including pacemakers, cardiac defibrillators, etc. To reduce denials, Plutus Health tracks LCDs for each code range.
Plutus Health Inc. is a one-stop solution for RCM requirements. We provide medical billing services that seamlessly provide end-to-end medical claims processing services to its clients. Our certified coding team knows the intricacies of billing Cardiology specific claims. Our team ensures smooth cash flow.
