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...
ICD-10 Ushers in “New” Concepts Good Day of Training! Last week, in this space, we talked about the importance of training for the billing office. We made the point that the billing office is vital to the success and “health” of your EMS agency and as such training is vital...
Why the Billing Office Must Train It’s that time of year Next week, our billing office family here at Enhanced Management Services will pause to train. Every single Enhanced staff member is trained as a Certified Ambulance Coder (CAC) using the curriculum supplied by the National Academy of Ambulance Coding...
Reimbursement Reality Check The Good Old Days! Remember back about ten years ago when we got those really nice Medicare increases each year? We remember! One year 5%, another year 3; it sure was nice and it helped us keep up with the rising costs of everything that makes our...
Why is EMS Documentation Hard to Do? We hear it Working in an EMS billing office, we hear it over and over. “I hate writing patient care reports.” Add the… “It’s too hard.” “It’s boring.” “It puts me to sleep.” “I never know what to write and how to write...
Details! It’s not rocket science… Just a few weeks ago we were having a conversation with one of our EMS billing clients and while discussing this manager’s frustration about the quality of his staff’s documentation in their patient care reports he simply blurted out… “It’s not rocket science, for Pete’s...
Of “Ambulance Drivers” and “Emergencies” All of the times… Can you count all of the times that you have been labeled an “ambulance driver”? Nearly half a decade removed from the dawn of modern EMS, to our neighbors that’s what we are…ambulance drivers. Regardless of all of the hours you’ve...
Dissecting “The Misunderstoods”- Part II- Billing for SCT “The Misunderstoods” There are two level of service categories that we lump into a bucket called “The Misunderstoods” of ambulance billing. Two weeks ago we blogged about the Advanced Life Support, Level 2 (ALS2) level. Today, in Part II, we focus on...
Effectively Documenting Cold Weather Emergencies Here in PA This weekend is going to be the coldest weather we’ve experienced here in the area of our home office in Pennsylvania, so we're taking a break from our 'Billing for ALS 2' series. We'll pick back up with Part II in next...
Dissecting “The Misunderstoods”- Part I- Billing for ALS 2 “The Misunderstoods” There are two level of service categories that we lump into a bucket called “The Misunderstoods” of ambulance billing. Those billing levels are the Advanced Life Support, Level 2 (ALS 2) and the Specialty Care Transport (SCT). There remains...
