To give patients the best service possible, many physicians end up performing multiple services in one visit. This is great for the patient, but can lead to lost dollars and be tricky when it comes to billing and documentation.
Think about when a patient comes in for a follow-up on a chronic problem and decide they want a mole removed while they are in the office. Sometimes it comes as an, “oh, by the way, can you take a quick look at this too?” Or “I’m here for my annual wellness visit, but I’m having a tough time with my allergies right now.”
Conversations like these can lead to lost dollars and can often happen during these types of visits:
- E/M services
- Medicare Annual Wellness Visits
- Chronic Care Management
In today’s complex, ever-changing healthcare landscape, it is difficult to know when you should bill for the additional services or when you could be walking a little too close to the edge. To identify these missed opportunities and lost dollars, ask yourself:
- Do I know how to document both services and bill them appropriately?
- Am I capturing all of the revenue I should for the services being rendered?
- Do I have the appropriate documentation to support all of the services provided during a given patient encounter?
- How am I preventing hospital re-admissions for my chronically ill patients?
- Do I know how to track the time spent each month managing chronically ill patients in order to capture the additional revenue?
If you have questions about how to identify missed opportunities and best practices for correcting them, please contact Angie Babb (ababb@blueandco.com).
