New Coder lost in abstracting NEED HELP!!!
Hi Forum! I am a new certified coder, new to the forum and have been coding for only 4 months...I need guidance!!!!
I have been working in a pediatric office doing chart auditing and abstracting, also high volume charge entry, I never can seem to get a straight answer from my billing department.
1. When a pt is seen for a well check and the doctor comes across a diagnosis example: Otitis media, strep throat anything contradictory to a wellness exam, does the doctor have to include this in the well check? I have been told that it is to the doctors discretion whether or not they want to bill the diagosis with the well check. I know that if the doctor prescribes a medication for the problem and spent time talking about it, depending on the type of insurance we can bill an ov with a 25 modifier. But what if nothing was done to help the problem? I hope this makes sense....And as a coder if they do not add it to the encounter/superbill is it my responsibility to ask whether they want to include it or not?
2. I have a doctor in my office that when a pt is seen for pharyngitis/strep with strep screen done, he marks on the encounter pharyngitis/strep w/out wanting to bill for the strep screen, but bills for a detailed visit? In the chart he does note that a rapid strep screen was done....All the other docs in my office bill for an intermediate visit when this exact visit is seen. Is this unethical? As a new coder to the industry can I get in trouble for this? I am still learning on how to distinguish the 4 types of visits (Brief, Intermediate, Detailed and High Complexity)
3. To bill an OV, we use the SOAP format in our office, as a coder do I only pay attention to what is marked in the Assessment portion of the chart to abstract the diagnosis to bill the visit?
There are so other questions I need answers on but I will start off with these first, any insight would be greatly appreciated!!!
Thank you,
Frustrated Coder....