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Tuesday 19 January 2016

Is The Medical Billing World Changing After ICD-10?


By Lonnie Greenfield


If you do medical billing for a living, you are probably scratching your head about the new ICD-10. It was released on October 1, 2015. There are many different techniques that you must use in order to get a good return from the insurance companies. Gone are the good old days of ICD-9. These codes were once easy to submit to the insurance companies. All you had to do was ask for reimbursement and you would often see a high return coming back to you. Now, medical coders are seeing a slowdown in the billing process. Many coders are seeing payments coming to them after 90 days. It is not uncommon for an insurance company to tell you that they need more information before releasing any money to you.

It is already a fact that most doctors lose around 30% or more of their claims to the insurance companies. This means that if they send the insurance company a request for payment of $100.00, they will often only receive $70.00. Many doctors are asking themselves why? Why doesn't the insurance just give me what I charged my patients? Many doctors see necessary tests that must be done on patients. However, the insurance companies often don't see that these tests are necessary. Many doctors often lose out on money because of this reason. It is a hard decision for any doctor to make.

It is important to see why so many people look the necessary skills to be in medical billing anymore. For starters, the new codes require a good education and possibly certification. Many men and women are finding out that they have to go back to school. It is important to note that the new codes are often hard for people to do correctly because there are so many of them. Can you believe that there are over 69,000 codes now? That is almost 5 times as much information.

The important functions of a medical biller today are that you need to be open to change. It is important for a medical biller to know a lot about anatomy and working directly with a medical doctor. Those that choose not to work alongside of a doctor say that they have no idea what is going on. This is mainly because you need to explain in detail why you are billing the insurance company to begin with. Under ICD-10, you must document as much information as you possibly can so that everyone is on the same page. The insurance companies want to know what the status is of the patient. Is there health improving or are they having to get more treatments. The important question that insurance companies are now asking is why? Why should I write your medical practice a check for $20,000? Why shouldn't it be $5,000? Does the patient really need all of the services that you are giving to them? Are you just trying to make more money off the insurance company? These are serious questions that insurance companies are asking today.

The worst decision that a doctor can make is to try and do medical billing themselves. It takes years of study to become an expert at billing. Doctors must work side by side with their coders. They must discuss anatomy with their biller so that they understand what to write down when submitting claims to the insurance companies. The more that you do this, the better turnout you will have. Medical billers today should know more about anatomy because they need to describe to the insurance company what is going on with the patient.




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