The below articles are all published in BC advantage
Magazine and written and contributed by Steve
Verno
Steve Verno Medical Billing and Coding Instructor/Consultant
at Quality Medical Management/Emergency Medicine Specialists
Miami, Florida
Emotional Support Animals
An Emotional Support Animal (ESA) is a pet, prescribed by a licensed provider to a patient for their mental health, which provides emotional support to the individual. ESAs can be different types of pets, most commonly dogs and cats, and any age or b...
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Medical Billing Values
Medical billing is not always an easy profession. Medical billers must interact with the medical care triad: the provider, the patient, and the insurance company. Medical billers face audits, upset patients, disreputable insurance companies, and fell...
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Medical Necessary Denials
In 1988, Samuel and Winona decided to have a baby. Samuel, worked at a small sneaker factory outside of Boston where they treated their employees well by providing health insurance as part of their employment. The factory was not a government e...
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2023 Emergency Care Physician Changes
Welcome to 2023 - so far, an interesting year. This year, CPT made many changes to Evaluation and Management (E/M) services, including emergency care physician changes. Emergency care CPT codes are simply a different form of E/M CPT codes...
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The Advance Beneficiary Notice or ABN
An Advance Beneficiary Notice (ABN) is one of the most abused forms at a patient visit. When we, as a patient, seek medical care, that medical care is a covered or a non-covered service. If it is a covered service, that means that the ser...
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The Second Opinion
In the 1960s, I was 13 years old and started having eye problems. My parents were approved to receive Medicaid, so my parents took me to the local mall and had an eye doctor examine me, and the eye doctor said I needed to wear glasses. ...
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Aphasia
Imagine this scenario: John Smith is a healthy 55-year-young man. He likes long walks on the beach, has a Siamese cat named Snuffles, owns his own contracting company, and has a beautiful wife whom he met i...Read
COVID-19 and Patient Visits
At least once a year, I have healthcare appointments. I usually have lab tests done as part of those visits, and another doctor visit for the results. Prior to COVID-19, my primary care physician (PCP) would give me paperwork to go to my ...
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Questions from the Internet: Welcome to Medicare
Questions from the Internet is an ongoing series of articles that are based on real medical billing or medical questions that are asked on the internet via an association forum
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Questions from the Internet: Radiology
Our practice has an in-house X-ray suite. The provider, who is not a board-certified radiologist, has been interpreting these in-house and billing insurance for both the professional and technical components accordingly.
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Questions from the Internet: Secondary Payer
Patient has Medicare primary and [ABC Insurance] Secondary. Medicare pays their portion leaving the 20% coins to be billed to [ABC Insurance] secondary.
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E-Book: ICD-10 and Podiatry
It's now time for ICD-10. Please enjoy this ICD-10 E-Book on Podiatry presented by Steven M. Verno, CMBSI, CHCSI, CEMCS, CMSCS, MCS, CHM
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NCCI FOR MEDICAL BILLERS
National Correct Coding Initiatives (NCCI) is a tool that coders can use when the provider has two CPT codes that are being billed to the insurance company
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To Use and Not Use ERISA
ERISA (Employee Retirement Income Security Act) is powerful and has many situations where it can be used, and for many, this can be very confusing.
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