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Billing and Financial

Next Reply: Re:Subspecialty Staus of Palliative Care
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Post Subspecialty Staus of Palliative Care
Author: jeffzesiger
Date: Oct 7, 2007 11:35 pm
In 9/2006,one YEAR ago, the American Board of Medical Specialties voted to have PCare recognized as a sub specialty of various Specialties such as IMed, Peds, etc. I am closing my practice of Primary Care IMed to do PCare full time, but insurance Co.'s still haven't heard of PCare. Also, I still get hospital charges denied from time to time when the attending Internist uses a symptom for a ICD-9 Diagnosis instead of a diagnosis code such as COPD.
Who is advocating for us to be officially recognized? Cardiologists don't have this problem & we shouldn't either. Who can we call/write to fix this ?
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Re:Subspecialty Staus of Palliative Care (by jbcassel on 10/12/2007)
There is strength in numbers, so the strongest advocates are associations such as AAHPM and HPNA. If you haven't already joined such a group and voiced your needs to its leadership, I would recommend you do so. If you're doing Palliative Care full-time as an employee of a hospital, talk to the folks in that hospital's managed care office about addressing denials. I'm not sure that anyone can prevent or appeal a denial for the scenario you describe, of two physicians billing for the same dx on the same day for the same patient. Rather, you'll need to work one-on-one with each attending doc to clarify how PC consultants bill, and how their documentation affects that. Let me know what you think of this response. Brian Cassel Senior Analyst VCU Massey Cancer Center Thomas Palliative Care Program A Palliative Care Leadership Center
Re:Subspecialty Staus of Palliative Care (by jeffzesiger on 10/30/2007)
Bcassell, thanks for your advice. I am a member of AAHPM. I am upset that cardiologists & other subspecialties are recognized FULLY but we are still in limbo with partial recognition. The financial part is where the recognition really counts. I will be bringing this up at the Massachusetts Hospice federation mtg next week and in New Orleans in November (NHPCO) Do you know anybody at AAHPM that knows about this subject ? Thanks again, jeffzesiger

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