Wiki eGlobal Tech letters from CMS

[Texascoder64]

Dermatologists have been getting a Comparative Billing report where they are targeting 59 modifiers specifically on the add on codes 11101 and 17003. According to my cci edits if 11100, 11101, 17000, 17003 are billed and of course these are all separates sites, then it would be appropriate to use 59 on both 11100 & 11101.
Does anyone have any reasoning behind this letter.. I am not finding any instances of where we have "overused" 59 on 17003 if any times at all..
So what is the deal with derms getting picked on.

I would appreciate anyone's input.

Thank you!

 

[CatchTheWind]

There was an article on DermCoder recently about it. Here is an excerpt:

First of all, relax, and don’t panic. This report is for EDUCATIONAL purposes only.
Your practice isn’t being audited, and you aren’t setting yourself up for some sort of payback if the report deems you an outlier. We’ve received a couple of copies from different clients. They all contain the same analysis and here is our take on them.
Personally, I think this report is a complete waste of time. If they truly want to save CMS money, then this report is tackling the WRONG issues and analyzing the wrong codes in the report. It is apparent that eGlobalTech’s understanding of coding and modifiers is lacking. And they have glazed over some potentially useful information.
The reports we have seen show that they are just looking at two "add-on” codes (17003/11101) when billed with modifier 59. We really think they SHOULD be examining utilization of modifier 59 on the primary codes of 11100 and 17000 when billed with other services....