Insurance Billing Made Easy, Update News


Yes, you may have thought I dropped off the face of the earth while in fact, I've been hard at work managing a busy practice, 2 kids and a mother with dementia, ha! I've also been hard at work updating Insurance Billing Made Easy for ICD-10, but unfortunately the fates have aligned against me and I have some bad news.

Insurance Billing Made Easy v2 will not be out this year. 

I am so close to having the edits completed, but my mother's health has been declining this year and, after a stroke just a few weeks ago, it is clear that I cannot make the necessary time to complete my book update.

So, on October 1st the price of the book will drop by 50% to reflect the non-ICD-10 ready nature of the guide.

The process and information in my book is still relevant and viable, however, so its still a good and worthwhile read if you want to understand insurance! I will be working on the update as early as I can in 2016 and publishing through Amazon with both a print and e-book version thereafter.

Where Do I Get ICD-10 Codes and Conversion Services EASILY??!

The GOOD news is that ICD-10 really does NOT have to be hard at all. Even if you've hardly prepared, you're in for a treat because there are great services for code conversion available and I'm going to tell you where to find them!

My favorite by far is the integrated ClientTracker Code Converter because I literally have to do nothing! If you use ClientTracker and you're in the cloud (recommended!) this is provided to you for free. You enter a diagnosis by name, or by the ICD-9 code and it automatically shows you the ICD-10 options. You pick, the system codes your SOAP note and invoice and voila! Coding is done.

Office Ally also has a free ICD-10 code search tool. You can choose to look up ICD-9 or ICD-10 codes by number or by description. It doesn't convert codes for you, but it will show them to you with a very simple search such as "pain" or "shoulder." Very handy.

Last recommend ICD-10 conversion tool is the AAC Network AcuCode Digital Coding Tool. For an annual fee, you have access to the website where you can enter a description or an ICD-9 diagnosis code and it will list all the ICD-10 codes for you. Efficient and accurate!

I'm afraid that is all the news for now. I have some very helpful updates planned for IBME - tables to help compare digital practice management systems, summary recaps of each chapter to highlight important points, an expanded section on charting, a print version and more! I'm very excited and very close to completion, but due to my mother's health and needs it just has to be on the back burner for a while.

I appreciate all of your patience and patronage! Please don't hesitate to stay in touch and submit questions. Since I am still editing, if there are specific things YOU want to see more of in my next version, let me know! I'll do my best to accommodate your requests.

Until next time, here's to you business success,

~Rebecca Hurwood, LAc

Well its confirmed, ICD-10 is now delayed until October 2015 as Obama passed into law the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) "doc fix" temporary legislation.

In a move surprising even the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, the Senate approved a bill on March 31st that would delay ICD-10 implementation until October 1, 2015 pushing back the current transition deadline by an entire year.

Bill HR 4302, the Protecting Access to Medicare Bill of 2014 mainly creates a temporary fix to the sustainable growth rate, or SGR, section of the bill which deals with reimbursement for Medicare physicians.  Without a fix of some sort, Medicare physicians are facing an immediate 24% reimbursement rate cut.  The revised bill controls this down to 0.5% initially and eases into transition.

Apparently on Monday Senator Ron Wyden (go Oregon!) proposed SGR Bill S 2157 that similarly corrected the SGR calculation problem but did not include the ICD-10 delay and also included wider reform for ICD-10 implementation, but this bill was opposed by yet another from Alabama Republican Senator Jeff Sessions and ultimately did not move ahead.

For a more complete report, see this excellent article from the Journal of the AHIMA.

The bill is now headed to the President who is expected to sign it into law, but until that happens all we can do is wait.  Beyond all the physicians, hospitals, clinics and private practices who have been preparing in good faith, most affected are the newly graduated medical coding professionals who have been trained ONLY in ICD-10 and now face education that could be frankly worthless for a whole additional year.  Hopefully, some provisions for suitable employment will be made for them, and if nothing else there may be a flood in the market of coding professionals ready and willing to help those who are less prepared get ready for the (inevitable if delayed) transition.

If you're looking for a good comprehensive ICD-10 code list, I've got a great resource for you - HIPPASpace.  Its a resource I'd used before to get NPI numbers for referring physicians, but hadn't used in a while until this week.  When I went to the site they had this magical incredible FREE ICD-10 lookup and its just too cool not to share.

You can enter a diagnosis like "fibromyalgia" or a simple category such as "pain" and get a full list of current ICD-10 codes.  Once you get the list you can choose a "mapping" option which will compare the chosen ICD-10 codes to current ICD-9 codes as well to help you understand if you've translated the code appropriately.

ICD-10 codes are much more complicated than ICD-9.  In physical medicine, for instance, the 7 digit codes include not only coding for the affected body part and type of pain/injury but also whether it is an initial treatment or follow up treatment for the injury so it is important to understand the coding language and sequence enough to choose correctly.

Still, for a quick way to just get the numbers and start translating what you have in ICD-9 to an initial subset of ICD-10 codes, this is a great free resource.

AAC's AcuCode 2014 - a comprehensive list of ICD codes for acupuncturists specifically - is now ready and available for purchase after being out for several months.  This year, they've taken their coding manual digital, so the annual fee includes instant access to their online database as well as a physical copy of the book which will print and ship beginning in October.

If you want a pared down set of codes specific to your profession, this is a good resource and still a comprehensive list.

The new CMS 1500 form, version 02/12, is now available and will be in use starting January 2014.  Mandatory use of version 02/12, however, has bee pushed back from October this year to April 2014 so we all have a little more time to review and implement this new claim form.

CMS holds regular informational calls and webinars through MLN Connects which is part of the Medicare Learning Network.  They are geared towards medical doctors and medicare billers, but they have great information for all providers who bill insurance of any sort.

Upcoming is a special ICD-10 Basics session on August 22nd that will walk through the basic differences between ICD-9 and ICD-10.  Continuing education credit may be available with proper documentation as well.

Undoubtedly, there will be much on this call that does not pertain to complementary and alternative medicine - especially for Acupuncturists since Medicare still does not cover Acupuncture - but with the extensive nature of the ICD-10 changes, more information is always a good thing.

If you haven't signed up for the MLN Connects Provider eNews I highly recommend it - its a simple way to stay on top of what is "coming down the pipeline" direct from CMS.  It is certainly a source I rely on for accurate insurance billing information and updates.

I hope you're looking forward to a wonderful week!  

Here's to your Insurance Billing and Practice Building Success,
~Rebecca

Its only taken me 3 years, but voila!  Website update which was a long time coming!  Poke around and check it out - new look, new blog, new affiliate site, pretty sweet!

That's right, it is on its way slowly but surely so hold on tight and keep up the prep work.  Currently, ICD-10 isn't required until October 1, 2014 so we still have a long time to complete our coding changes, test our systems and prepare.  But the key is PREPARATION - don't wait until the last minute!  Start compiling your code sets now so that when October 1st 2014 rolls around you are well tested and ready.

I promise I will have a book update out by then too, so stay tuned!  I will include the basic codes necessary for Acupuncturists as I did in my first edition.  You can also peruse codes at the official CMS ICD-10 website but it is rather unwieldy to search through them all.

A great code set that's been parsed down for Acupuncturists is available from the American Acupuncture Council for about $50, but it is currently sold out!  I will endeavor to post when they are available again, or you can contact AAC direct and ask if they can notify you.

Okay, guys, this one is a biggie - beginning October 1st 2013 a NEW HCFA/CMS 1500 form called version 0212 will be required for insurance billing.  You can see a PDF version HERE and you can read more on the NUCC website HERE.  Undoubtedly, your clearinghouses are already testing this new form and will be prepared to process it.  I haven't heard or seen anything about availability at stores like Office Depot or the like for purchasing pre-printed blocks of these, as you can with the current CMS 1500, but we can only assume that is coming too since its kind of a necessity for compliance.

The only CAM friendly database system that I know is assured to have the new CMS 1500 0212 built into the system is ClientTracker by Ginkgo Software.  So if you're thinking of investing in a new system for your practice, I highly recommend this one - it is what I use and I wouldn't be without it.  They have a multi-user cloud system on its way that can be accessed using both your computer and your tablet devices which is pretty sweet.

Them's the haps, people.  Stay tuned for more insurance billing, practice building and Insurance Billing Made Easy updates - I promise there will be more to come!

Oh, and have you signed up for my ezine?  If not, you should! Free tips delivered to your inbox and not spammy, I promise!