Common coding errors can cost your practice

Figuring out what those errors are and educating your staff on better coding and documentation methods can mean fewer denied claims.

By Julie A. Jacob, AMNews staff. July 2, 2001.

No supporting documentation, missing signatures, invalid codes and misinterpreted abbreviations are some of the most common physician coding errors, says a Web site devoted to coding issues.

Other mistakes included in Justcoding.com's top-10 list of coding errors are billing for a consult instead of an office visit, failing to list a chief complaint and billing services included in a global fee as a separate fee.

The list of errors was based on feedback from consultants who work with physician offices, said Ruthann Russo, executive director of HP3 Healthcare Concepts, a reimbursement and coding consulting firm in Bethlehem, Pa., that owns Justcoding.com.

Although coding errors are usually from minor mistakes, they can add up to a lot of lost revenue, Russo said. She cited the case of one 200-physician multispecialty group in which doctors had not received any in-depth education on E&M coding.

"We estimated that by incorrect coding practices of E&M levels assignment, clinicwide they were leaving over $10 million unbilled," Russo said. "We felt this was a very conservative figure. We did multiple group training and individual training with the doctors and saw extreme improvement in documentation and reimbursement."

Mary Stanfill, a coding practice manager for the American Health Information Management Assn., said she "would advise a physician to be proactive and find out how the claims are going and to see if they have a lot of fixable, common errors that they can head off." [...]