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Practice Management Alert

Reader Question:

Billing Resources

Published on Mon Jul 01, 2002

Question: Can you provide me with some good resources for new billers?

New York Subscriber

Answer: Every medical billing specialist should have at least two books or one coding software program in their reference library:

  • the Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) Code Book is published annually by the American Medical Association. An easier method is to use a coding software program such as CodeLink.
  • the International Classification of Diseases (9th Revision) Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM) or a coding software program such as CodeLink is also a must. If you lack a background in medical terminology, it may be useful to have:
  • a medical dictionary such as Stedman's Medical Dictionary or Dorland's Illustrated Medical Dictionary
  • a handy pocket guide such as Medical Acronyms, Eponyms, & Abbreviations to help you translate those tricky acronyms and abbreviations
  • the Medical Phrase Index, a one-step reference to over 200,000 medical phrases, and the Physicians Desk Reference (PDR), which can help you locate drugs by product name, generic name, manufacturer, category or chemical.

    Software that can verify that the CPT and ICD-9 codes are accurate before the claim is sent to the payer is helpful. Medical Office Billing and Collections Alert surveyed several software experts, and the following programs were most often recommended: CodeCorrect PRO, Alpha II Coding Systems, INTELICODE, Encoder Pro Compliance, VeriClaim, QuadraMed and StatCoder.

    In addition, the following Web sites may make your job a lot easier:
    1. The American Billing Association: www.webcom.com/medical/ceu.htm
    2. The HIPAA e-mail alert: Sign up for it at www.hipaadvisory.com/alert/
    3. Chili Medical Biller has several links on its site to assist billers at www.chilimbs.com/

    Note: If you sign up for e-mail alerts and discussion groups, you may want to set your e-mail to come only once a day with all the postings in a "daily digest." Your systems person should be able to help you with this.

    Answers to Reader Questions and You Be the Coder provided by Kathy Pride, CPC, CCS-P, HIM applications specialist with QuadraMed, a national healthcare information technology and consulting firm based in San Rafael, Calif.; Claire Sheehan, CMM, CPC, billing manager, North Dover Ob/Gyn, Toms River, N.J; Steven M. Verno, NREMTP, CMBSI, director of reimbursement for Emergency Medicine Specialists, Hollywood, Fla.; and Catherine A. Brink, CMM, CPC, principal of Healthcare Resource Management Inc. in Spring Lake, N.J. $ $ $

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