Primary Care Coding Alert

$$$ can fly out the door if ICD-9 overlap afflicts claim. Getting the most accurate ICD-9 codes possible for your FPs services will go a long way toward preventing denials when coding for concurrent care. Follow this case study and learn how to ensure that everyone is getting paid for their services. Remember Consult Exception When your FP provides concurrent care with other specialists on a patient, you must be sure that each physician is treating a separate patient problem; otherwise, only one physician will get paid, even if each physicians service is medically necessary. Confusion surrounding concurrent care can start when the FP is treating a hospital inpatient and calls in physicians for consultation. Consider this example from Jill M. Young, CPC, CEDC, CPC-IM, with Young Medical Consulting LLC in East Lansing, Mich: The FP is treating an established patient with controlled type II diabetes with ketoacidosis as a [...]