The Medical Minute – MMI Medical Blog
Top 5 Soft Skills Needed in a Healthcare Position
Healthcare's central principle is moving away from patient volume and toward patient value. With rising costs in medical care, especially out-of-pocket expenses on the patient's end, patients are looking for and expecting a greater quality of service and positive...
Waiving Patient Copays
So you may be thinking you're doing a patients a huge favor when you write off their copays for your provider's services, but in reality you could be hurting your practice or yourself badly from this process. If your practice waives a patient's financial...
The Potential Impact of ICD-10 Excludes1 Notes
Many years ago, problem lists started appearing at the beginning of an Evaluation and Management note, the notes were dictated and transcribed, and the list was recreated for each new visit. Coders that have been around before the switch from ICD-9 to ICD-10 know the...
Tips For Communicating With Patients About Medical Coding
Communicating with patients can be a bit difficult at times. You are trained to code and bill as seen fit from the provider’s documentation and maybe even how to communicate with the provider, but not the communication with the patient aspect. With patients’...
The Pros and Cons of Working Remotely
Working remotely from home can have several positives like not spending money on several professional outfits and gasoline, or other means of transportation. Yet, it could cause your career to come to a slow halt. Without working in office there’s no way to see how...
How To Show Medical Necessity
Medical necessity can sometimes be difficult to define. Medical necessity is a decision made by the payers, who never directly see the patient and their illness. Medicare defines medical necessity as services and/or items reasonable and necessary for the diagnosis...
ICD-10 Coding for Burns
A burn is tissue with partial or complete destruction of the skin caused by heat, sunlight, nuclear radiation, electricity, or chemicals. Every minute in the US someone sustains a burn injury that requires professional treatment. The American Burn Association...
Importance of Documentation with HCC Coding
Many speak on the financial benefit in Hierarchical Condition Category (HCC) coding, but proper HCC documentation and reimbursement directly affects the patients. The patients are the most important factor, so proper documentation and coding is about more than just...
Tips for Passing Your Certification Exam
Do you have a certification exam approaching? Whether you’re gearing up for the RMC, RMB, RMA, RMM, REMS, RRC, CPC, CCS, or any other certification exam, we have some great tips to offer you. Before the exam, be sure you are turning off any distractions during...
HCC Coding Basics
Hierarchical Condition Coding (HCC) is a risk adjustment model used by Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) for Medicare Advantage (Part C) contract rates. Risk Adjustment is a health plan process for compensation based on the underlying health conditions....