To Bill or Not to Bill? Shakespearian EMS? We can only wonder what the documentation would look like if the great bard Shakespeare would have been a member of the EMS community. “Dispatheth via troubadour to yonder hamlet for a person swooning with the vapors.” Okay…enough of that. But we borrow a take on the […]
The Power of the “Pre-Auth”! Necessary Evil! The American healthcare picture has increasingly become more complex. The advent of the Affordable Care Act and other changes have ushered in literally thousands of new healthcare insurance coverage options. These options change all the time and each year new plans with new rules and requirements spring up. […]
Setting the “Stage” Landing the Series Today we’re landing the “Documentation Review as a Habit” series. Our seventh and final installment of this series focuses on documenting the “stage” of the patient’s illness or injury in the Patient Care Report (PCR) and the importance of doing so. For Emergencies and Beyond When documenting the 9-1-1 […]
It’s All in the Timing Part VI Our “Documentation Review as a Habit” series rolls into Part VI with a discussion about capturing timing in the Patient Care Report’s (PCR’s) documentation. Not only is there an importance placed on documenting the correct date and time of the incident, chronologically, but there is even more importance […]
2 Ways to Use the Internet to Promote Your EMS Billing Program The Digital Age We are completely immersed in technology today. The Internet, mobile technology and the digital portability of everything we do has taken over our world as we know it. But, does your EMS billing program look more like 1999? If Windows […]
Friday Night Lights, EMS and ICD-10 It all Begins Tonight! Our billing office headquarters is located in Northeastern Pennsylvania and tonight is one of the biggest nights of the year. High school football is king in Pennsylvania and tonight is the kick-off night for the 2016 season. This reminds us that young people everywhere, even […]
Other Methods of Transportation are Contraindicated Medical Necessity Defined We talk a lot about Medical Necessity in the ambulance billing office. Medical necessity and Reasonableness are key in determining whether or not an insurance payer is obligated to pay for ambulance transport, especially for Medicare and Medicaid patients. Title XVIII of the Social Security Act […]
Medicare for All? Feel the Burn After two weeks of the major party political conventions, we can truthfully say we “feel the burn!” Hold on…we’re not taking political sides. Note that it’s “burn” and not “Bern” that we feel, as in “burn out.” Our presidential campaigns in the United States are far too long. After […]
Insurance Coverage Doesn’t Mean Insurance Payment This year, for the first time in 8 years, we’ll elect a new President in the United States of America. Healthcare issues have been on the radar screen for many years. President Obama brought us the Affordable Care Act or “Obamacare”. Much has been written about the effects of […]
Be Careful What You Say! The Quick Answer The quick answer will get you every time! You know, the patient asks you a question you quickly answer with an off-the-cuff answer. And then…..you realize…. “Oops…maybe I shouldn’t have said that.” Too late now! Where are we going with this? Invariably, questions fielded about billing in […]
