Wiki blue shield reimbursement on 99204/99205

jstickfort

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Every time we bill for 99205 or 99204 to Blue Shield we get a request for medical records and then a denial, never fails. If we downcode we get paid but all our records equate to the necessary documentation for the CPT code, this is a Pediatric practice with fellowships in sports medicine and the ICD 10 is for an injury. Any thoughts?
 
Hi Jtickfort
Using the CPT 99204 and 99205 must be justified...per the CPT manual almost near death or complex case or must go to EMR from your office. Is this the first visit for THIS injury by your office ? Or is the PED doc following up or aftercare dx blocks of Z48 (ortho ) or Z09 on the new injury? Are you adding external codes,date of injury, place of occurrence where happened: all this data needs to be on the claim. Are your physicians in the insurance network? lf this is just injury due to external causes? Or does the ins company may want another payer to cover it. Is it possible they want like sports insurance or school insurance to pay if happened at school or during sports? Or if car accident the other driver insurance may need to be billed?

Just some ideas to think about

I hope I helped you:)
Lady T
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Every time we bill for 99205 or 99204 to Blue Shield we get a request for medical records and then a denial, never fails. If we downcode we get paid but all our records equate to the necessary documentation for the CPT code, this is a Pediatric practice with fellowships in sports medicine and the ICD 10 is for an injury. Any thoughts?
Do your denials from the payer explain their rationale for why the are not accepting the level you billed? If not, I would escalate this with the payer, either by trying to get in touch with an appeals supervisor or by contacting your network representative. If the denials are valid, either per the terms or your contract with the payer or based on documentation, then you'll want to align your coding with the plan's requirements to avoid the delays and the administrative cost of these appeals and corrected claims. But if these denials are not valid, then the payer needs to address the problem and stop this, which may require an intervention by someone at a higher level. Either way, my recommendation would be to speak with someone and negotiate a resolution to this.
 
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