If your are not aware and prepared for the 2009 cardiology billing and coding changes you may be leaving a lot of money uncollected.
Not since the mid 90’s has cardiology seen such significant coding and billing changes as have been put in place in 2009.
Cardiology practices were hit harder than the average physician by this year’s changes (with a 2% reduction in Medicare fees instead of the 1% increase seen by the average physician) driven in large part by changes that will impact imaging performed in the office.
As a result some cardiology practices will see revenue decreases far exceeding the average 2% (particularly the offices heavily dependent on echo services). Other cardiovascular services may experience increases if properly managed.
A sample of the key 2009 cardiology billing changes includes:
- Significant changes in the codes used for follow-up on implanted devices (all of the old codes have been replaced). The updated codes include codes for follow-up on devices with leads in 3 chambers, codes for checking ICM devices, codes for periprocedural checks, and codes for remote device follow-up and monitoring.
- 30 and 90 day global periods are now in place for follow-up for some devices. Also, the new codes are specific to either an interrogation evaluation or a programming evaluation. The codes are no longer dependent on whether reprogramming occurred.
- The current cardiology billing changes include CPTs for wearable cardiac telemetry devices like Cardionet. These new codes include global periods. There is no more billing for such services under the unlisted procedure codes.
- Codes that bundle multiple echo services under a single code have been introduced. Examples include a single CPT for bundling an echo with both a Doppler and color flow and a stress echo CPT that bundles both the stress test and stress echo.
These changes are far greater than the normally “tweaking” that occurs at the beginning of each year. If you cardiology billing department is not fully aware of the changes and how to respond to these changes it could have a significant negative impact on your practice. Be sure to invest in the proper training, coding resources and billing system upgrades to be prepared for 2009 cardiology billing.
Copyright 2009 by Carl Mays II
