ENT Account Management: ICD-10 Grace Period is Ending Soon
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) stated last year that it would not be denying physician claims for Medicare for a period of 12 months, as long as the ICD-10 code that was used was “from the right family” or close enough for accuracy. However, that 12 month period is about to come to an abrupt end on October 1, 2016. Are you ready? Have you done all that you could do in that grace period to improve your account receivables management and ensure that your billing department was current on ICD-10 coding requirements?
Additional guidance as provided by the American Medical Association (AMA) over the summer, in an attempt to help physicians, practices, clinics and hospitals get ready in advance of the 12 month grace period ending. Did you take advantage of this assistance to make sure your ENT account management was up to par? What steps did you take to improve account management? If you are concerned about the grace period ending, and what that might mean to your otolaryngology practice, you are not alone.
Hiring a Team of Professionals
MD Pro Solutions provides a wide range of services that ENT practices like yours can use to ensure that they do not miss out on payments for claims to Medicare, Medicaid and other payers. Our team specializes in ENT account management and support, focusing solely on practices that also specialize in Ear, Nose & Throat services. What that means for you is that our team of highly trained technicians and support personnel are very well versed in all of the ICD-10 code requirements that are used each day by otolaryngology practices.
Our goal is to help you boost your coding skills and confidence, improve account management, assist you with performing an annual fee schedule review, and provide any other forms of account receivables management that you might need. We can help you train your staff, provide online support and assistance or take over billing and coding services until you are ready to jump back in and do them in-house again. Our goal is to make sure that your billing department is working accurately and efficiently for best results.
No More Grace Period
In September 2016, CMS reminded physicians that the grace period was coming. In fact, they even stated that they would not be extending the “ICD-10 flexibilities beyond October 1, 2016.” It is now expected that all providers should be coding to the “highest level of specificity” and no flexibilities will be provided, even for those who were obviously putting in a strong effort to do it correctly. The bottom line is that as of October 1st, all providers will be required to put forth accurate coding that properly reflects the clinical documentation of diagnoses and treatments with as much specificity as possible, according to the guidelines set forth for coding in ICD-10.
Statistics released by CMS show that providers have been able to improve account management under ICD-10, with only 10 percent of claims being rejected and only .09 percent of those claims being rejected due to the use of ICD-10 codes that were invalid or improperly used. This is good news for providers and account receivables management as a whole. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) released nearly 2,000 additional diagnosis codes that will be added to ICD-10 for the 2017 fiscal year, and an additional 3,651 new procedure codes were also added for the same period. ENT account management needs to stay on top of their billing and coding efforts to ensure that their in-house staff stays on top of all the changes and additions to ICD-10 coding requirements.
What Can You Do Today?
If you are unsure of your account receivables management or feel that you need a little more support to improve account management at your otolaryngology practice, you should consult with MD Pro Solutions to take a temperature of where your billing and coding is at this stage. With CMS withdrawing all flexibilities regarding ICD-10 coding, your ENT account management and support from external services like MD Pro Solutions is more important now than ever before. Conducting an annual fee schedule review, hiring healthcare consulting services, performing internal checks and reviews and working directly with an online support service, can all help to improve account management.
Give us a call at 508-946-1665 and speak with one of our ENT account management consultants. We can provide you with a FREE consultation to determine whether you would benefit from our services to improve account management. Whether you need credentialing services or an annual fee schedule review, we have all of the tools, services and experience required to get the job done right. Call MD Pro Solutions today and take the steps necessary to improve your account receivables management.