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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THE FINAL PUZZLE PIECE OF COMPLIANCE - ON-GOING EDUCATION
Over the last few issues we have discussed compliance plans, compliance policies and chart auditing. The final piece to a good Compliance program is education and this is an ongoing process.
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Chart Audit 101
Correct coding by physicians is critical to getting paid for what they do and for avoiding external audits by Medicare and other payers. Ultimately, however, the only way to determine whether coding is appropriate is to compare it against the there i...
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Guidance For Developing A Compliance Program
National attention to the rising costs of federal health care programs (i.e., Medicare, Medicaid) has led to increased scrutiny by the OIG of physician billing practices. Any practice submitting a claim for services to Medicare or Medicaid must be in...
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Developing Coding Policies for Compliance
Every physician practice depends upon correct coding and billing for their financial success. Coding drives reimbursement. All of the resources available for coding information and guidance are meaningless without the practice manager translating it ...
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The Risks and Responsibility of Coders
If your office were the target of an audit, would it survive? Would the documentation support the services you bill? To protect yourself and your practice, it's important to recognize coding and documentation risks and how to avoid them.
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Management Bullies - Are You One?
There are as many types of management styles as there are managers and let's not forget that physician's are also managers and they too have many varied styles. This article is going to address staff abuse but more importantly Manager abuse by their ...
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ARE YOU PREPARED FOR A DISASTER?
For those of us on the east coast and specifically, Florida and the Gulf states, it's hurricane season but in the Midwest it's also tornado season. Earthquakes have been happening in areas other than the west coast and floods have also been serious p...
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Dealing With Conflict In The Office
Do you have a problem employee? You have asked her to follow a certain rule and she always violates it. Does your front office never know what the back office is doing and vice versa. Is there a lot of tension in your office? Have you had some turnov...
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Collections Problems - How to identify them and then how to fix them
We are all aware that the common reports that indicate the number of days your claims remain in AR or that reveal your net collections ratio can help you keep an eye on the bottom line. But if those reports indicate trouble, what steps should you tak...
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Is Your Practice: Making Costly Mistakes with The Billing?
You may think your billing processes are working perfectly, but even the best billing process can take more time than it should to collect and some collections are lost altogether. It could be the staff's fault or yours as the office manager, but eit...
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Is Your Practice Coding Correctly?
As the Office Manager it is our responsibility to see that our practice is coding correctly when billing the third party payers. Accurate billing is essential for two reasons. First, it lets you capture all costs, and thus bill for all services to w...
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No Shows - OH NO!!!
As Office Managers we know everyday will provide many challenges and usually nothing stays the same, but if there's one constant we can count on, and that is there will be "No Shows" in the appointment schedule. Sometimes that can seem like a blessin...
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TRAINING YOUR STAFF - An Investment in Training
We want our offices to run like well oiled machines, however, for our staff to keep it working that way requires significant training and quality working tools. Medical office personnel often receive the majority of their training on the job but know...
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Does the office manager need to know coding???
As the office manager, you have many hats to wear and your day is full of administrative responsibilities. You have to deal with issues of personnel management, ordering, overseeing the smooth running of the day-to-day office operations and many othe...
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THE EOB SAYS
What do we do when we get the EOB stating "Payment is included" and it's not? Well we need to fight and get the reimbursement we deserve. Marge McQuade discusses further.
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