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 not only maintaining a consistent […]
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 it.” Then there’s the… “Can’t […]
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 spent training to attain your […]
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 week’s blog. Considering the extreme […]
Railroad Medicare Pre-Pay Review Upcoming It’s coming… In communication from Railroad Medicare (Palmetto GBA) last week, the ambulance industry was notified that the U.S. Railroad Retirement Board Office of Inspector General (RRB OIG) and the Office of Inspector General U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS OIG) together with internal data analysts had ordered […]
New Year’s Resolutions for a Happy EMS Billing Office It’s 2016! Wow! It’s 2016! It’s hard to believe we’ve entered a New Year. Wasn’t the 4th of July like yesterday? Ready or not, here we are. It’s January and time to make those famous New Year’s resolutions. Of course, in the spirit of all things […]
Using the Buddy System to Prepare PCRs Where’d the day go? As a billing company, we often hear tales of woe as the administrative persons we work with share their challenges over getting their staff to complete Patient Care Reports in regular fashion. Let’s face it, EMS is a busy world. We’ve all had those days […]
Documenting Incidents for Public Places/Stand-By Events We are asked… Here at the billing office we often are asked questions about documenting EMS incidents that take place in public places and many times during stand-by events. There are the events where your EMS agency is engaged such as high school sporting events, community events such as […]
Introducing the “Z” Codes Fast Approaching! ICD-10 is fast approaching! Come October 1st the healthcare industry begins to use the new diagnosis coding regimen and with that transition the ambulance billing industry will face a new set of rules and billing guidelines to follow including the “Z” codes. Reasons for Encounters… The “Z” codes denote […]
Documenting Non-Emergency Scenarios Post October 1, 2015 Back Again We’re back again in the second part of our look at the guidance provided by Novitas Solutions as published in their future Local Coverage Determination (LCD) slated to begin on October 1, 2015. You’ll recall that we focused on emergency documentation in this space, last week. […]
