The below articles are all published in BC advantage
Magazine and written and contributed by Marge
McQuade
Marge McQuade Director of Education
at PAHCS
Tampa, FL
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Training for Better Collections
Well trained billers may be your biggest asset toward improved collections. With the decreases in patient visits and reimbursement that many practices are experiencing, capturing every dollar you can is essential. So now is the time to evaluate and ...
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Dealing With Coworkers Who Behave Badly In the Workplace
Have you worked with someone who is rude or unprofessional on the job or have you been subjected to yelling and verbal abuse on the job? Have you been driven to tears or experienced pushing, slapping, or hitting by someone at work? While some people'...
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Physician Documentation and the Coder
Complete and accurate coding hinges upon complete physician documentation. Physicians must document all the necessary details so that coders can bill for all the procedures that a surgeon performs. However, physicians often omit these critical facts ...
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The Employee Evaluation
Because having a good staff is important to your practice, it is vital to have in place an effective employee evaluation. Having an effective employee evaluation process provides you with the information you need to:
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99211 What Are The Rules???
As I was putting together a presentation on E/M documentation, it occurred to me that many people have a problem with correctly using 99211. Many coders and physicians seem to believe that if a patient comes in for a service (blood work, shot, pressu...
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CODING FOR CHRONIC CONDITIONS
A chronic condition is a condition that reoccurs or is a permanent illness, condition, or disease that most likely will need to be treated routinely. Patients with chronic conditions probably make up a large part of your practice. Coding these condi...
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Giving a Straight Answer When There Isn't One
We all know from experience that being able to count on a straight answer from our physicians makes our work as a manager easier. And yet, for a variety of reasons, we may not feel that we need to give our staff the same kind of decisiveness and str...
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A Coder's Insight into Diagnosis Coding
To assign an accurate diagnosis code, you need the most specific ICD-9-CM code available for a documented condition and the same will be true when ICD-10 becomes our coding system. Now is the time, if you haven't already, to look at how you choose y...
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New Year, New You... Hints To Help You Be More Productive!!!!
We are a month into 2012 and most of us have made resolutions for the New Year and by now most of us have probably broken them. Well one of mine was to try to become more productive. Many days I feel like there aren't enough hours in the day or for...
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Yearly Checkup For Your A/R !!!
By: Marge McQuade, CMSCS, CMM As we start 2012 we will face many challenges in our practices. A new year is a good time to look at your Accounts Receivables (A/R) and see if there are ways you can improve it.
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The Importance of Medical Necessity
By: Marge McQuade, CMSCS, CMM ICD-9 codes represent the first line of defense when it comes to medical necessity. Correctly chosen diagnosis codes support the reason for the visit as well as the level of the E/M services provided. The issue of me...
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E/M DOCUMENTATION: Does Your Coding Match Your Documentation???
No matter what your specialty we are all faced with making sure our physician uses the correct E& M Code for what he/she documented. Remember if it wasn't documented it wasn't done!!!! That said, when looking at documentation to code E/M services, it...
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Rising workloads due to downsizing or balancing work and home life or staying on top of current billing/coding rules, or new technology are probably some of the frustrations you might be facing not only as a coder but as an office manager.
V CODES WHEN TO USE THEM
V codes have a bad reputation as a series that doesn't often bring reimbursement. But they're frequently the correct as well as ethical diagnosis choice, and many payers do reimburse for procedures and services linked to them.
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Managing Overpayments & Refunds
The physician provides a service and then you get paid for it. The process of collecting what patients and payers owe us should be a fairly straightforward endeavor. But as office managers we all know it's far more complicated than that - especially ...
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Cash Flow in Hard Economic Times
In these hard economic times, and with the current problems of low reimbursements, we all are looking for ways to keep our doors open and our cash flowing. Think of your practice's stacks of uncollected insurance claims as piles of cash. Now imagine ...
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Managing by the Power of Example
The scenario: the economic climate has forced your physician to tighten the belt and raises and many perks are postponed or deleted from the budget and some staff positions are being looked at for consolidation, attrition, etc. Your staff feels the u...
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GRIPE SESSIONS CAN BE SUCCESSFUL
"Let's all get together on Tuesday morning for a no-holds-barred discussion. Problems, ideas, gripes - you name it and we'll talk about it."
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Let Go and Delegate An Office Manager's Hardest Goal!
As a medical officer manager office efficiency is always one of our goals. That goal benefits everybody in our office and one of the best ways to accomplish this is by delegation.
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Hints for being a better Office Manager and Leader
Today's medical office manager is in the leadership role in the office. Leadership skills are important for today's medical office manager because our organizations are shifting and becoming less hierarchical since many of us are in the trenches so t...
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