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CAPC Palliative Care Discussion Forum
Billing and Finance

Next Reply: Re:Do we still need to use symptom codes?
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Post Do we still need to use symptom codes?
Author: glee_scvmc
Date: Apr 14, 2010 2:06 pm
With palliative care now being recognized as a subspecialty, is it still necessary to use symptom codes to bill for our services? In the past we used symptom codes so that two physicians of the same specialty could bill for seeing a patient on the same day.
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Re:Do we still need to use symptom codes? (by JulieP on 04/15/2010)
While HPC is now a separately recognized specialty, I would still suggest that PC providers continue using signs and symptoms whenver possible. There are many carriers that will deny services that are billed with the same diangosis regardless of the providers' specialty. We're struggling with a major carrier in WI who fails to recognize the diffrent specialties. My medical oncologists are having their visits denied as they are using the same dx used by the general and plastic surgeons who perform breast reconstruction on breast cancer patients. There really isn't a good reason to stop using the signs and symptoms codes.
Julie Pipke-CPC, RM MCW

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