Replay of Toughest Chiropractic Billing, Coding, Documentation & Collections Questions EVER!

Written by Tom Necela, DC, CPC, CPMA, CCP-P on December 10th, 2010

Topics: Chiropractic Audits, chiropractic billing, chiropractic business, chiropractic coding, chiropractic collections, chiropractic documentation, chiropractic webinars

SORRY, THIS REPLAY IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE!

We exceeded capacity of our host for our 3rd Annual webinar, “The Toughest Chiropractic Billing,Coding, Documentation, Collections Questions Ever!” This “maxed out” webinar features Dr. Tom Necela answering questions “live” from chiropractors around the country on a variety of billing, coding, documentation, collections issues!

While we certainly are happy that so many doctors wanted to attend, we want to make this information available to all those who registered and were not able to get to the presentation, so we are making a replay of the broadcast available for a limited time only.

(Click above to listen and watch this 1 hr presentation)

Tom

P.S. This replay will only be available until Dec 31, 2010, so listen while it’s here
and tell your friends before it’s gone!

“The Toughest Chiropractic Billing, Coding, Documentation Questions Ever!” FREE Webinar!

Written by Tom Necela, DC, CPC, CPMA, CCP-P on December 1st, 2010

Topics: Chiropractic Audits, chiropractic billing, chiropractic business, chiropractic coding, chiropractic collections, chiropractic documentation, chiropractic EHR, chiropractic EMR, chiropractic practice management, Chiropractic Seminars, chiropractic webinars

It’s time for the 3rd annual installment of “The Toughest Billing, Coding, Documentation and Collections Questions Ever!”

In this FREE webinar you will have a chance to get your most frustrating or confusing questions answered by Dr. Tom Necela – chiropractor, certified professional coder, certified professional medical auditor and certified compliance professional. Read More

Dangerous Data from the Chiropractic Comparative Billing Report

Written by Tom Necela, DC, CPC, CPMA, CCP-P on November 16th, 2010

Topics: Audits, Billing, Business, chiropractic billing, chiropractic business, Coding, Collections, compliance, Documentation, Medicare

For those of you who are wondering why I am devoting three blog posts to the Chiropractic Comparative Billing Report, it is this: even if you did not receive a CBR, there is a wealth of opportunity and danger in the data derived from the CBR. Put simply, Medicare has sent the CBR as warning signal (for some of you) that what you are communicating to Medicare (and other payers) may not comply with guidelines and meet the requirements you need to get paid.

While none of your results from the tables or graphs from the CBR should be viewed as a problem in and of itself, there are a few “dangerous” conclusions that you definitely do not want drawn from your practice patterns – whether or not you received a CBR. Read More

How to Interpret Your Chiropractic Comparative Billing Report (Part 2)

Written by Tom Necela, DC, CPC, CPMA, CCP-P on November 12th, 2010

Topics: Audits, Billing, Business, chiropractic billing, chiropractic business, Coding, Collections, compliance, Documentation, Medicare

In Part One of this post, we discussed how to interpret some of the data from the Chiropractic Comparative Billing Report issued recently by Medicare to 5000 DC’s around the USA as well as made some proactive suggestions for improvement.

In this installment, we will discuss the data from the remainder of the Comparative Billing Report (Figure 2 and 3) as well as how to draw some conclusions from the CBR data about your practice. Read More

How to Interpret Your Chiropractic Comparative Billing Report

Written by Tom Necela, DC, CPC, CPMA, CCP-P on November 2nd, 2010

Topics: Audits, Billing, Business, Chiropractic Audits, chiropractic billing, chiropractic business, chiropractic documentation, compliance, Documentation, Medicare

This past week or so, 5000 chiropractors nationwide received a “present” in the mail in the form of a Chiropractic Comparative Billing Report (CBR). Even though I had previously reported that this would happen (see my previous post “Medicare Releases Chiropractic’s Comparative Billing Report Pilot”), my email inbox now knows what it must feel like to be a postal carrier during the holiday season.

Although, the CBR is not punitive or an audit per se, the report has certainly stirred up strong feelings in our profession and got a whole lot of people suddenly worried about their billing practices and level of audit risk.

At this point, it is not humanly possible for me to respond to all the emails that I have received on the CBR from the profession at large.

However, I will offer the following blog post to address many of the common concerns and questions I have received from chiropractors wondering what to do about their CBR. Read More

How Do Chiropractor Salaries Compare to Other Health Professionals?

Written by Tom Necela, DC, CPC, CPMA, CCP-P on October 26th, 2010

Topics: Billing, Business, chiropractic billing, chiropractic business, chiropractic practice management

Wondering if the recession has hit your practice and your wallet as much as other DC’s or even MD’s?

Let me be the first to tell you that spending time calling up your DC friends or commiserating at your local seminars on how bad things are due to the current economy can not only be potentially depressing, it is almost always completely useless!

First, hate to say it, but your “friends” lie. If they are doing fine and think you are not, they lie to make it seem like things are tougher than reality. After all, why kick a man when he’s down? By the very fact that you ask the question, it’s obvious you’re hurting. I will admit – at least your friend is a nice person and they want to spare your feelings. But, you probably won’t get a truthful response.

Other friends lie because they too are in the toilet but they don’t want to admit it. Instead of actually doing something that is revenue generating for themselves, they will give you a handful of advice that didn’t work for them and act as if their practice is fine. This gives them the air of superiority. In reality, their practice stinks and the advice they gave is either terrible or may in fact work, but they wouldn’t know. They didn’t try it. Again, their response is less than truthful.

So now that we have established that there really is no reason to have the “are things bad in your office too?” conversation, why compare at all?

The answer is this: to study trends and glean insight from businesses that ARE thriving. Read More

Medicare Releases Chiropractic’s Comparative Billing Report Pilot

Written by Tom Necela, DC, CPC, CPMA, CCP-P on October 14th, 2010

Topics: Audits, Chiropractic Audits, Medicare

Doctors, your “report card” is now available.

This past week (10/4/2010), chiropractors in the state of Wisconsin were the “pilot” program subjects who began receiving a “Comparative Billing Report” (CBR) produced by SafeGuard Services who is under contract by Medicare (CMS).

Don’t worry Wisconsin DC’s, they’re not just picking on you — the national release of the CBR is anticipated to be be sent three weeks later to 5000 chiropractors nationwide. Read More

Updated Fall Seminar Schedule!

Written by Tom Necela, DC, CPC, CPMA, CCP-P on October 12th, 2010

Topics: seminars

Updated Fall Seminar Schedule — new date and locations added!

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Thursday, November 4, 2010 – Seattle, WA

Chiropractic Billing, Coding, Documentation MASTERY!

Best Western River’s Edge (Seattle Airport)

15901 W Valley Highway

Tukwila, Washington, 98188

REGISTER BELOW

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Saturday, November 6, 2010 – Orlando, FL

Dr. Necela is a guest lecturer at this multi-speaker event
Register directly with Full Potential Leadership
See Total Skills Integration seminars for more details

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Saturday, November 13, 2010 – Portland, OR

Chiropractic Billing, Coding, Documentation MASTERY!

Hyatt Place Hotel (PDX Airport) — New Location!

9750 NE Cascades Parkway

Portland, OR 97220

REGISTER BELOW

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For all Chiropractic Billing, Coding and Documentation Seminars

Due to the special hands-on Documentation/Coding Training Session – SEATING IS LIMITED!

Cut through the confusion and learn how to increase and protect your practice’s bottom line with billing, coding and documentation strategies you always wanted to know, but never knew who to ask!

Here’s just a sampling of what you will learn:

ð New audit targets for 2010 that can impact your bottom line

ð Strategies to get paid better for what you do

ð Avoid mistakes that get your claims denied or delayed

ð Tips to achieve defensible coding & documentation

ð Avoid audit traps for Medicare and billing “red flag” that alert the insurance radar

ð Systems to create internal audits that improve compliance

ð Discover new code updates and clarifications for 2010

*** Now Featuring***

“Hands-on” case coding including actual examples of documentation do’s and don’t gained from Medicare and other commercial insurance training sessions

Here’s what DC’s are saying about Dr. Tom’s seminars:

“Tom is an expert at what he does and makes it simple for the rest of us!” Eric Hansen, DC

“I would recommend all DC’s attend one of Tom’s classes. They are necessary, practical and essential for a professional, compliant and meaningful practice. He is one of the rising stars of the profession!” Melinda Maxwell, DC

Dr. Necela is the most authoritative source of coding, billing, auditing & Medicare issues that I have ever seen.” James Bowen, JD

“More useful information in 4 hrs than I received in 4 years!” Jacob Waller, DC

I wish every state would encourage licensees to attend your seminar” Lori Inkrote, DC

“Four hours went by fast – I could have stayed longer!” Dale Johnston, DC

“His material is packed with information, never the same and full of the latest updates – I’ve attended as many as 3 in one year and always learn something new!” – Amy, CA

About your presenter:

A former Insurance Claims Analyst, Dr. Necela is a Certified Professional Coder and the first chiropractor to become a Certified Professional Medical Auditor. Dr. Necela uses his unique perspective and expertise to train chiropractors on sound billing, coding and documentation principles that allow them to increase their income, reduce their risk of audits and work smarter (not harder) towards a better business. For more info, see www.strategicdc.com

Chiropractic Billing, Coding Documentation Seminars Registration Details

Seminar Hours: 9am-3pm (6 CEs)

Lunch is included!

$149 in advance for DC / $179 at the door

$198 in advance for DC + 1 Staff / $258 at the door

$149 advance for 1 Staff only (without DC present) / $179 at the door

REGISTER ONLINE!

(Click Links Below)

Seattle, WA

Orlando, FL

Dr. Necela is a guest speaker at this event
Register directly at Full Potential Leadership

Portland, OR

11/13 Portland Registration — DC Only ($149)

How Do Chiropractors Protect Themselves From Wrongful Discounts?

Written by Tom Necela, DC, CPC, CPMA, CCP-P on October 5th, 2010

Topics: Billing, Business, chiropractic billing, chiropractic business

Beware: pirates are attempting to steal your insurance checks!

If you have recently opened the mail only to realize that you seem to be a “participating provider” with insurance companies that you never heard of, you are certainly not alone. While it may seem silly to complain about being paid, the fact is that you are paid a contracted rate (which is sure to be less than your billed amount) for a contract that never existed. In other words, the payer has given you a “Wrongful Discount” because you never agreed to a discount in the first place!

This phenomenon – known as a “Silent PPO” – is just one of the latest in third party payer’s bag of pirate tricks aimed at reducing your payments. Unfortunately, it is becoming an increasingly common occurrence in the field of medical billing. (Yes, that means that it’s not just the chiropractors that are being picked on!) Read More

Medicare Issues Chiropractic Software and Documentation Alert

Written by Tom Necela, DC, CPC, CPMA, CCP-P on September 21st, 2010

Topics: Audits, Billing, Chiropractic Audits, chiropractic billing, chiropractic documentation, chiropractic EHR, chiropractic EMR, Coding, Documentation, EHR / EMR, Medicare

Medicare carrier Noridian Administrative Services (which administers Part B claims in Alaska, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming) recently updated and reprinted a notice on Chiropractic Software-Generated Documentation that I think can serve to educate us as a profession.

Incidentally, although your specific carrier may not be Noridian, you should take note that most Medicare carriers generate the exact same news releases, alerts and notices each week so I wouldn’t be surprised if you don’t receive a similar “reminder” from your carrier. Even if you don’t the information contained and summarized below can be crititical towards getting claims paid as well as avoiding denials and postpayment audits.

Apparently, the piece was generated because Noridian has seen an increase in the use of software-generated documentation for chiropractic services. In and of itself, there is certainly nothing wrong with using EMR or even any form of computerized notes. So what’s their beef? Read More

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