Important Cardiology Medical Billing and Coding Changes to look out for in 2019.

Cardiology medical practices offer a variety of services like invasive procedures and interventions to patients in different settings. Service charges in this specialty are dealt with differently, depending upon the place of service. Now, the Place of Service can be different for different situations like Surgery Center, Hospital, Doctor’s clinic, hospice care, skilled nursing facility or some other place.

Keeping up with the changes and discovering the best practice has become more important than ever. Billing cardiology claims accurately, requires a working knowledge of cardiology specific CPT and diagnosis codes, current coding rules, and ever-changing compliance standards. A minor mistake in cardiology medical billing and coding can invite denials and adversely affect your practice revenue.

Cardiology Medical Billing and Coding Changes

Though more than 450 changes were introduced in the 2019 ICD-10 updates, there were only a few changes or revisions that affected Cardiology. However, it is still imperative that you familiarize yourself with them. Here we have compiled some of them for you to get a hang of it.

Changes in Cerebral Infarction

New codes were introduced to cerebral infarction category I63. Following are some of them.

·         I63.81 – Cerebral infarction due to occlusion or stenosis of the small artery (lacunar infarction also included)

·         I63.89 –Cerebral infarction

These codes might be required to report with an additional code, R29.7, indicating the NIHS (National Institute of Health Stroke) scale for the patient, when applicable.

Introduction of New Subcategory in I67

Cerebrovascular Disease, category I67 was introduced with a new sub-category for hereditary cerebrovascular diseases. The new codes in this subcategory were:

I67.850, for cerebral autosomal dominant arteriopathy, subcortical infarcts, Leukoencephalopathy with CADASIL.

I67.858, for other hereditary cerebrovascular diseases.

With the introduction of these new subcategories, a new “code also” note is also present that instructs reporting of associated diagnoses like vascular dementia, recurrent seizures, and cerebral infarction with I67.

Other revisions

T46.4X, for Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors.

122.8, for subsequent posterior transmural myocardial infarction.

197.64, for post-procedural seroma of the circulatory system.

T81.11, for post-procedural cardiogenic shock.

Combination Codes

Cardiology Medical Billing and coding also saw the introduction of combination codes for different cardiology conditions. Therefore, it is important to ensure that they are also used whenever required. Also, using terms like “Use additional code”, “Code Also”, “Code First”, etc. helps generate a complete picture.

Outsourcing Cardiology Medical Billing

With the inception of these codes changes, it has become important for cardiologists to take special care while dealing with cardiology medical billing. Cardiology medical billing comes with complex contractual adjustments and procedure rules that undergo changes frequently.

Choosing to outsource cardiology medical billing will allow you to focus on the core practice aspects and deliver excellent healthcare services. We at Bikham Healthcare, are dedicated to helping cardiologists and cardiology practices run their facilities with ease under full HIPAA compliance and data security standards.

Contact Bikham Healthcare today to learn more about our medical billing services.