Responding To Growth-Induced Orthopedic Medical Billing Needs with Specialist Intervention

Orthopedics have been on upward growth trajectory thanks to a host of conducive factors – continued pro-orthopedic Medicare reimbursement reforms, innovative care procedures, breakthroughs in orthopedic technology and anesthesia administration have largely been responsible for upsurge in practice volumes. The combination of these factors has enabled shifting orthopedic from hospital-based inpatient form to a more popular and affordable form – outpatient or ambulatory settings. It is noteworthy that this form of orthopedic care is currently growing at over 20%, which is comparable with other fastest growing specialties.

While orthopedic practitioners have reasons to be upbeat about their practice prospects, they should equally be cautious and prepared for billing complexities that may be accompanying the swelling practice volumes.

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One of the primary reasons why Orthopedic Billing may be susceptible to billing complexities is that orthopedic comprises a broad spectrum of procedures to treat a variety of orthopedic conditions, which are perceived and valued differently by payers. Therefore, it would require orthopedic practitioners to be versatile to respond with orthopedic billing and coding in conformity with individual perception of the payer who they are submitting their claim to. More than mere submission of claims, they should necessarily have a systematic Revenue Cycle Management with comprehensive processes such as coding, charge posting, claims filing, payment posting, A/R follow-up including denial management, and reporting.

Significantly, insurance underpayments, which are more rampant in orthopedic and as high as 10 to 15% of the actual claims, may push orthopedic practices into a state of revenue erosion that could jeopardize their clinical and operational efficiency. As a result, they might have to emphasize on monitoring and minimizing underpayments with an effective process of credentialing, verification, patient eligibility, and proper coding & billing.

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Coding revisions too would substantially add up to Orthopedic Billing woes – with the on-set ICD-10, orthopedic codes will be more complex, detailed, and numerically too many to code a wide array of orthopedic procedures such as bone graft, open surgical partial removal of collar bone, partial repair or removal of shoulder bone, open repair of rotator cuff, open repair of rotator cuff, reconstruction rotator cuff, open repair elbow fracture involving ulnar bone, wrist fracture pinning through skin, open surgical treatment wrist fracture, shoulder scope, repair cartilage tear, shoulder scope, partial removal collar bone, shoulder scope, bone shaving, shoulder scope, rotator cuff repair, injection of lower back joint, and many more. This monumental coding revision might warrant appointment of specialist coding professionals.

The changing orthopedic coding and billing landscape would require, among various other things,

To evaluate where you stand currently as against the projected requirements for a comprehensive orthopedic RCM comprising coding, charge posting, claims filing, payment posting, A/R follow-up including denial management, and reporting.

To earmark resources to monitor finances, and assigning them the responsibility of meeting with patients before admission to pre-collect copays, deductibles and co-insurance amounts, and work out payment plans as needed.

To improve front-end revenue cycle management, comprising checking coverage and verifying patient information before hand.

To facilitate training coders on coding revisions as and when they happen.

As in the case of most busy and critical medical disciplines, orthopedics may also be bound by an overriding clinical focus that may be limiting their exposure to full-pledged orthopedic medical billing reforms. Medicalbillersandcoders.com – having successfully mediated resource-deployment for growth-induced medical billing requirements across the broad spectrum of medical disciplines – offers to replicate it in orthopedics too. With an affiliation with chosen pool of orthopedic medical billing specialists across the 50 states in the U.S., orthopedics can expect to have instant access to specialist medical billing services.