It’s important to understand the basic elements of any neurology medical billing process. Here are some of the most significant points to take into account.
One of the most important things to remember for accurate reimbursement is the correct assignment of ICD-10 and CPT codes. In neurology, many different codes are used to cover the range of diagnostic and therapeutic procedures, including but not limited to neuroimaging, neurophysiology tests, and nerve conduction studies. This means it’s critical to be familiar with the latest coding guidelines, updates, and changes, to minimize the potential for claim denials.
In many cases, the codes that are used will need to have specific modifiers applied to them, to convey additional information about the service, process, or procedure that was used. Using modifiers correctly is an important part of preventing underpayment and overpayment.
LCDs are policy documents that are issued by Medicare Administrative Contractors that lay out the medical necessity guidelines and coverage specifics for healthcare services and procedures inside of their respective jurisdictions. LCDs can vary between contractors, which means it’s essential for neurology practices to be intimately familiar with the LCDs applicable to their region.
NCDs are standardized policy documents that are issued by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, which outline the coverage and medical necessity for specific services, but on a national level. NCDs apply to all Medicare beneficiaries no matter what region they are in.Â
To give your practice the best chance at full optimization of its revenue cycle, try to implement these best practices:
In the neurology medical billing field, continuous training is crucial to keep your billing staff apprised of all changes and updates in the ever-changing neurology billing requirements. Provide ongoing education and support for their professional development, and help ensure everyone in your billing department is kept up-to-date and compliant with the latest changes and updates.Â
Leverage modern medical billing software that can help streamline your billing process and your day-to-day operations. Specialized neurology medical billing software can help drastically reduce manual tasks, as well as human-related errors, which commonly cause claim denials or rejections. Implementing an electronic health record system can also help ease documentation woes and facilitate seamless integration with your billing system.
Periodically, you’ll need to conduct internal audits of your medical billing processes. This is a critical component of keeping your billing department streamlined and running smoothly. Audits will help you find potential process breakdowns, errors, and inconsistencies, highlighting areas that need improvement, and frequently giving you actionable ways to improve them. Any issues found should be addressed quickly to minimize potential revenue loss.
Submitting claims on time and without errors is the best way to minimize delays in your revenue cycle. Delays in submission can lead to delays in reimbursement or even denials. To prevent your revenue from being delayed, and that any errors are corrected, implement a suitably efficient claim denial management system that proactively seeks out claim denials to address the errors and get the claims resubmitted. Also, ensure that the issue behind the initial error is rectified.Â
In many cases, it may be more prudent to simply outsource your neurology medical billing needs, rather than invest the time, resources, and more to have in-house staff tasked with them. There are many benefits to this approach, and often those who operate or work in small to medium neurology practices find that outsourcing their medical billing services holds more benefits than simply taking some work off of their shoulders. We’ll take a look at the benefits of outsourcing medical billing for neurology next, and dig into any potential drawbacks there may be.
There are several significant benefits to outsourcing your neurology medical billing, including but not limited to:
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If you think your practice may be ready to outsource its neurology medical billing needs, finding the right medical billing partner can be challenging unless you partner with AMS. AMS Solutions can provide industry-leading coding and billing outsourcing services while maintaining the highest level of data security and patient privacy. Reach out today to learn more.Â
We just need some info about your practice and we'll prepare a personalized demo to show how we can help lighten the burden of medical billing and credentialing for your practice.
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