Jimmie Hebert
CMC, CMIS, CMOM

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January 5, 2009

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  • Is Your Practice Ready for the New Year?

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Is Your Practice Ready for the New Year?

The New Year is upon us. Is your practice prepared? There is a lot to do.

When was the last time you took a look at the super bill? Here are a few things to consider:

• Are your most common procedures and services listed?
• Are there blank spaces to write in procedures and services performed but not listed?
• Are all procedure codes current? Be sure to check Appendix B & C of the 2002 CPT Manual for a list of all new and revised codes.
• Is every level of E/M per category listed? The OIG has cited practices that give their physicians only the highest levels to choose form.
• Do your physicians provide ICD-9’s or diagnosis verbiage on the superbill? If they are writing out the diagnosis, do you have enough information to code to the highest specificity?
• Do your physicians sequence the diagnoses per CPT code for you? In other words, what is the primary diagnosis, secondary dx, etc. per procedure or service?
• Is the patient’s name and birth date printed on the superbill? Account numbers are also helpful.
• Are your superbills numbered? It is easier to keep up with them if they are numbered.
• Are lost charges a problem in your practice? Are you billing for every service provided and billable?
• Who is responsible for noting charges, the physician, nurse, etc.? Failure to note a charge constitutes lost revenue. This is the chief cause of lost dollars in practices today.
• ‘Missing’ superbills are also lost charges. Run a report at the end of each day to show all patients seen and be sure there are charges entered for each of them.
• Be sure the charges entered into your computer equal the charges noted on the superbills. You don’t want any mistakes here.
• What services does your physicians provide outside the office, i.e. hospital, nursing home visits, etc.? Use a customized pre-printed form to capture all out-of-office charges. Be sure the form has a space for listing the place of service.

Take a look at your fees. Are your in line with other physicians of your specialty in your zip code? A fee analyzer specific to your zip code and specialty is a necessity.

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