Documenting Causation for Illnesses V. Our “Documentation as a Habit” series moves on to Part V this week. In it, we’ll discuss causation or the synonym we use a lot in healthcare terminology, etiology. Last week we talked about mechanism of injury which is basically the trauma part of any causation discussion. This week, we […]
Mechanism- External Cause of Injuries Next Thanks for returning for Part IV of the “Documentation as a Habit” series. This is the fourth week of this series where we have paused to take a look at the need for EMS agencies to be intentional about Patient Care Report documentation reviews. In this series, we lasered in on how […]
How Severe is Severe? Part III Welcome to Part III of our “Documentation as a Habit” series! Two weeks ago we embarked on this series noting the necessity for EMS agencies to be intentional about Patient Care Report documentation review. The series focused on explaining the coding considerations that every EMS provider must consider when […]
Location, Location, Location Last Week Last week we launched a new blog series focusing on the need for creating a habit of reviewing Patient Care Report documentation. As we unpackaged that discussion, we drilled into the documentation needed to support medical necessity and as such the documentation needed to support the ultimate diagnosis coding of […]
Documentation Review as a Habit Put it on the calendar! Because more than ever before, detailed clear clinical documentation in the Patient Care Report (PCR) is critical to the mission, it’s time for every EMS agency to pick a date and time to regularly meet and discuss run sheet documentation. Of course, this blog space is […]
5 Costly EMS Documentation Mistakes Here are the five EMS documentation mistakes that deny patients coverage they deserve and EMS agencies fair compensation for their services By Steve Johnson One of the most frustrating scenarios for EMS agencies is the denial of coverage for ambulance transport for far too many patients. In the vast majority […]
Documenting “Right Now” In the Moment… When assisting in documentation training for EMS providers, a common emphasis is made to continually reinforce the necessity of documenting the patient’s condition right now in the Patient Care Report. We find it especially important to stress this important concept when educating providers who are handling a fairly consistent […]
Billing for Ambulance Scenarios Involving Death Solemn Subject This week we address a rather solemn subject. While none of us care to admit it, there are times when our best life-saving efforts are unable to change the course of events and our patients succumb due to medical emergencies and/or trauma scenarios. It’s sad for both […]
Emergency! – Digging Deeper to Define Lights and Sirens Myth This billing office is often questioned about what constitutes an emergency for the purposes of billing and collecting payment. There’s a myth in EMS that any ambulance incident that necessitates the use of “lights and sirens” is an emergency. It’s not the case. We look […]
When Other Healthcare Disciplines Don’t Know Ambulance “I worked in healthcare.” One recent caller to our billing office started a conversation in this way when he called to question his ambulance bill. The patient called because he had received notice that we had billed Medicare on behalf of one of our EMS agency clients. The […]
