Coding | The Strategic Chiropractor

Maximize Your Chiropractic Income, Minimize Audit Risk WEBINAR!

Written by Tom Necela, DC, CPC, CPMA, CCP-P on February 18th, 2011

Topics: Audits, Billing, Business, Chiropractic Audits, chiropractic billing, chiropractic business, chiropractic coding, chiropractic collections, chiropractic documentation, chiropractic practice management, chiropractic webinars, Coding, Collections, compliance, Documentation, Medicare, webinars

By request, we have taken our popular seminar and brought it into your home/office via WEBINAR! Read More

Chiropractic Seminar Freebies You Missed! And Your Chance to Profit From Them…

Written by Tom Necela, DC, CPC, CPMA, CCP-P on February 10th, 2011

Topics: Audits, Billing, Business, Chiropractic Audits, chiropractic billing, chiropractic business, chiropractic coding, chiropractic collections, chiropractic documentation, chiropractic practice management, Chiropractic Seminars, chiropractic webinars, Coding, Collections, compliance, Documentation, Medicare, seminars, webinars

For those of you who did NOT attend my recent seminars in the Northwest, here are a few items you missed!

For those of you who attended, as promised, here are the specific references and places to go for the information that was not included in your notepacket.

Tom

P.S. If you did NOT attend my recent seminar, be sure to read the bottom of this post for a Special Offer!!

P.S.S. Seminar attendees — I used this picture above to stimulate your memory to…stop giving it all away! 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

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

Medicare Audit Letters Hit Chiropractors Starting August 2010

Written by Tom Necela on August 17th, 2010

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

Every Medicare carrier in the country has been assaulting my inbox recently with “ALERT” emails designed to make chiropractors aware of studies being conducted by the Comprehensive Error Rate Testing (CERT) program. I am not sure if we are at the equivalent of Code Orange or Code Red at this point, but the profession is definitely on Medicare’s “elevated risk” alert system in some fashion. So, in case you haven’t heard, may this post serve to Paul Revere the chiropractic community to be on guard — Medicare is coming, Medicare is coming! Read More

Are Your Chiropractic Revenues Tied to Emotions or Logic?

Written by Tom Necela, DC, CPC, CPMA, CCP-P on August 3rd, 2010

When faced with decisions on major life purchases – house, car, building purchase, even expensive remodels or repairs – most of us responsible adult chiropractors tend to do some comparison shopping. We may go out and get three or four quotes, make a list of the pros and cons and then pick the best choice, right? Read More

Random Thoughts Episode #136: Chiropractic Audits, Business Building & Success

Written by Tom Necela, DC, CPC, CPMA, CCP-P on July 20th, 2010

I’m on the road for the next couple weeks traveling for a number of on-site consultations with clients so this blog post will be a summary of random thoughts on the most common questions that repeatedly brought to my e-mail inbox. Read More

Selling Chiropractic Products and Billing Insurance

Written by Tom Necela, DC, CPC, CPMA, CCP-P on July 13th, 2010

Topics: Billing, chiropractic billing, chiropractic coding, chiropractic collections, chiropractic practice management, Coding, Collections

Many chiropractors have realized the benefits of offering products for sale to our patients. Whether it’s the convenience factor for the patient, our ability to control quality or brand use, or the fact that we want to be able to help our patient’s outcomes, products make sense.

Unfortunately, some chiropractors have a difficulty in making the sale of products make financial sense.

Worse, if you are the type of DC to stock your office with every “hot” new product that catches your fancy, only to quickly lose interest in it a few weeks later, product inventory and sales can become a financial drain on your profitability. Read More

The Best of…Strategic Chiropractor Blog Flashbacks

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

Topics: Audits, Billing, Business, Chiropractic Audits, chiropractic billing, chiropractic business, chiropractic coding, chiropractic collections, chiropractic documentation, chiropractic practice management, Coding, Collections, compliance, Documentation, HIPAA, Medicare, Medicare ABN, OIG Report, Politics

flashback

In business and in life, it is helpful to go back and review the basics, to take a look at where you’ve been and where you want to go.

Today’s blog post feature’s 3 links to our most popular columns of the past – in case you missed them – or in case you need “a refresher course.” (pardon the Fletch reference)

Here they are (in no apparent order):