Anesthesia Coding, Billing, & Compliance - Day One

Tuesday, June 10, 2008 | Thursday, November 13, 2008

8:00 a.m. – 9:00 a.m. Registration & Continental Breakfast

9:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. The Anesthesia Practice of the Future – and Your Role in It
Karin BiersteinKarin Bierstein, JD, MPH, former Associate Director of Professional Affairs, American Society of Anesthesiologists; Vice President for Strategic Planning & Practice Affairs, Anesthesia Business Consultants, Jackson, MI 

Expect your job to continue pretty much as it is now?  Don’t count on it.  The anesthesia practice of the future will provide not only anesthesia and pain management, but an entire perioperative management service – for which the customer is just as likely to be the facility as it is the individual patient or health plan.  Karin Bierstein brings her years of insight from the American Society of Anesthesiologists and Anesthesia Business Consultants to tell you how you can expect your physicians’ work and the anesthesia practice to change in the months and years ahead, and as a result your role too.  Enter with an open mind, because your job as a coder is going to evolve and you need to be prepared to evolve with it or you will be left behind. 

10:15 – 10:30 a.m. Refreshment & Networking Break

10:15 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. Criteria of Medical Direction:  When and How to Use It 
Kelly DennisKelly Dennis, MBA, CPC, ACS-AN, President, Perfect Office Solutions, Leesburg, Fla.

Find out what medical direction is all about and learn what you need to do to address it when dealing with modifiers, relief, concurrency problems and other difficult areas. You will get the tips you need to make it easier for you to follow Medicare’s documentation rules for a medically directing anesthesiologist. You’ll also learn which services can be performed while medically directing (sometimes it depends on your individual state carrier directions!). Finally, Kelly will also discuss how to determine whether medical direction is incomplete, and whether or not to bill the QZ modifier in such cases.

11:30 a.m. – 12:45 p.m.  Power Lunch Break – Build a Professional Peer Network
Come to lunch and walk away with dozens of new contacts and ideas from your peers.

12:45 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. Ready, Set…Code: Difficult Anesthesia Coding Cases and Solutions
Devona SlaterDevona Slater, President, Auditing for Compliance and Education, Leawood, Kan.

Ever wonder why a case should be assigned with an alternate code?  Does the site of incision or the fracture weigh you down?  Dive into some of the more complex anesthesia billing situations in this interactive workshop that draws on real-life case studies. Devona will take you through the common mistakes and difficult coding cases in anesthesia.  Seasoned and novice coders alike will benefit from expert tips that will assist you in your daily anesthesia case coding.

2:00 p.m. – 3:15 p.m. Concurrent Workshops A & B (choose one)

Workshop A:  Billing for Ultrasound Services
Kelly DennisKelly Dennis, CPC, PMCC, EFPM, ACS-AN, Perfect Office Solutions

Pay attention, because the government’s eyes are on this one.  The OIG added "geographic areas with high utilization of ultrasound" to its watch list this year because it is concerned with just how much and how often ultrasound is billed.  Nail down what to look for when billing ultrasound services separately.  The codes call for permanent images and, unfortunately for many practices, physicians may simply document the procedure "with ultrasound" or something similar, which is not sufficient to withstand government scrutiny. You can’t afford to miss this session especially because of the confusion surrounding billing for ultrasound services.  

Workshop B: Anesthesia Collections: Strategies that Pay Off
Devona SlaterDevona Slater, President, Auditing for Compliance & Education

Anesthesia practices today are experiencing larger patient deductibles and bigger balances due to a variety of reimbursement headaches, health savings accounts among them.  Incorrect processing, slow payers and other chronic payer problems cause anesthesia billers headaches that just won’t go away.  Seasoned veteran Devona Slater will show you the best ways to resolve collections problems.  It’s the best help you can get for your accounts receivables! BONUS:  Tools for anesthesia appeals, sample collection letters and more

3:15 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.  Break

3:30 p.m. – 4:45 p.m. Concurrent Workshops C & D (choose one)

Workshop C:  Cure for Your Labor Reimbursement Pains
Joanne MehmertJoanne Mehmert, CPC, ACS-PM, CCC-PM, President, Mehmert&Associates, Kansas City, Mo.

If billing for anesthesia services admitted during labor and delivery is causing you pains, here is your opportunity to learn how to use the obstetric anesthesia codes.  Nail down when to bill anesthesia services provided for delivery only, what diagnosis codes are appropriate when a caesarean section follows labor analgesia, cephalic version, and when/who you may bill for “standby” services.  Joanne will provide an in-depth examination of the pros and cons of the most prominent methods for billing OB anesthesia care time, including which methods could expose you to the most compliance risks.

Workshop D: How to negotiate payer contracts…and win
Vicki MyckowiakVicki Myckowiak, Partner, Myckowiak Associates, Detroit, Mich.; and Devona Slater, President, Auditing for Compliance and Education, Leawood, Kan.

Get step-by-step instructions on how to negotiate the most advantageous payer contract and the provisions you need in your payer contracts (as well as your hospital agreements) to ensure that you get, and keep, all the money you are legally entitled to. Learn how to negotiate fair and reasonable fees, get paid for all the services you provide, negotiate a reasonable appeals process, and much more. 

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