The 25 and 59 Modifiers: Clearing Up the Confusion

Your Expert Presenter:
Margie Scalley Vaught, CPC, CPC-H, PCE, CCS-P, MCS-P, ACS-EM, ACS-OR Margie has over 22 years of experience in the health care arena. She has worked in many positions from a nurse’s aide to ward clerk and medical transcriptionist to office manager. She has over 15 years experience in orthopedic coding, billing and reimbursement issues, and has contributed many articles to the AAOS Bulletin. Currently, Margie is performing internal audits, education and training of physicians and office staff and helping clinics establish billing and compliance manuals as an independent consultant. She is an advisor on orthopedic coding to the Board of Medical Specialty Coding (BMSC) and assisted in the development of its Advanced Orthopedic Coding credentialing exam (ACS-OR). She is a member of BONES and has presented at its yearly conventions. Margie also serves as technical advisor to the Orthopedic Coder’s Pink Sheet.
Who Should Attend
This conference benefits a wide variety of health care professionals. Billing and coding staff Physicians and non-physician practitioners Practice administrators & executives Front office staff Compliance offices Consultants There is no limit to the number of staff from your office who can participate. One registration fee lets your entire staff listen in via speakerphone! Save money — no travel expenses!

Your Medicare carrier has just been instructed to pay extra careful attention to claims with modifiers 25 and 59, so now’s the time to be absolutely positive you’re doing everything right. Tune in to The 25 and 59 Modifiers: Clearing up the Confusion, an exclusive 60-minute audio conference hosted by expert coding consultant Margie Scalley Vaught, CPC, CPC-H, PCE, CCS-P, MCS-P, ACS-EM, ACS-OR, and find out all you need to know.

Margie will review the basics of both modifiers, using clear examples across all specialties and offering official supporting citations from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and CPT, giving you all the “black and white” information you need to document your claims. You’ll find out:

Whether you can bill for a separate E/M and minor procedures during the same encounter;
When to append modifier 59 to secondary procedures;
What is meant by “significant and separately identifiable” and what’s a “distinct procedure.

A review by the Office of the Inspector General found that 40% of code pairs billed with the 59 modifier didn’t meet program requirements – leading to $59 million in improper Medicare payments. And incorrect use of the 25 modifier led to a whopping $538 million in improper Medicare payments. Medicare doesn’t want to be burned again, so providers beware! Sign up now for Margie’s nuts-and-bolts audio conference and get your modifier questions cleared up once and for all.

Approved for 1 CEU

To find out about upcoming conferences and for a complete listing of CDs, please visit www.decisionhealth.com.

One registration fee lets your entire staff listen in! Save money - no travel expenses!