Intentionally UNDERCODING to reduce the likelihood of Medicare recoupment?  

Category: Coding

Recently, I've had the opportunity to accompany my parents on their visits to the doctor's office.  Until sitting in on an encounter of that sort, I underestimated the complexity and time-consuming nature of senior citizen encounters. An elderly patient's status or history can be a moving target. Medically, an already established elderly patient that visits your practice regularly can often present like a new patient altogether with new symptoms, complaints and organ system problems. Add to that the issues of drug interaction and their social situation in regard to family and care-takers-or lack thereof-and the result can be a very long time-consuming encounter.

Very few of my clients, even those with a large Medicare patient base, utilize the 99215 or the other prolonged service codes. Many of the doctors refuse to bill a 99215, for fear that doing so would automatically invite...