Does anyone have a recent power point on EM's? I have three new physicians that need a review, and I don't have the time right now to create one. Your assistance would be greatly appreciated.
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Wiki Need EM power point for training
- Thread starter wegrant630
- Start date
Orthocoderpgu
True Blue
I've been in this business since 1989 and as I have read the 1995 and 1997 documentation guidelines repeatedly I came to the conclusion that whoever wrote it was under the impression that physicians would not do or document anything that was clearly not "medically necessary". An office visit with low medical complexity would only need one or two HPI elements while a more complex visit would require more. If my impression was correct, the writers of the documentation guidelines could not have been more inaccurate in their assumption. The second any physician finds out that all they need is "one or two more" of any element to bump up the code, they will do that just to be able to bill the higher code that is no longer based on medical necessity. I've noticed over the years that physicians choose their E/M levels based on their own changing criteria. I once asked a physician why they chose a 99215 and the answer was that they had performed a comprehensive exam. I've also seen where companies have actually educated their physicians on E/M key components so they could choose their codes more accurately, just to see them discard the information given to them and immediately go back to assigning codes their own way again. Thousands of dollars totally wasted. In your career if you have seen physicians actually pay attention to the three key components and improve their coding accuracy, many of us would like to know your secret! When the big switch happens next year I think the physicians will be on a more even field than they are now. For any provider education you may want them to use "E/M University" since its run by an actual practicing physician.