Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
Medical billing, a payment process in the United States healthcare system, is the process of reviewing a patient's medical records and using information about their diagnoses and procedures to determine which services are billable and to whom they are billed. [1] This bill is called a claim. [2]
In 1982, after much work and debate, the UB-82 emerged as the endorsed national uniform bill. After an 8-year moratorium on change, the UB-82 was replaced by UB-92, and became the standard for billing paper institutional medical claims in the United States, until creation of the UB-04.
In 1982, Blue Shield merged with The Blue Cross Association to form the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association (BCBS). [11] Prior to 1986, organizations administering BCBS were tax exempt under 501(c)(4) as social welfare plans. The Tax Reform Act of 1986 revoked the exemption, however, because the plans sold commercial-type insurance.
The process to obtain prior authorization varies from insurer to insurer but typically involves the completion and faxing of a prior authorization form; according to a 2018 report, 88% are either partially or entirely manual. [5] At this point, the medical service may be approved or rejected, or additional information may be requested.
Electronic referral, when a specialist evaluates medical data (such as laboratory tests or photos) to diagnose a patient instead of seeing the patient in person, would often improve health care quality and lower costs. However, "in the private fee-for-service context, the loss of specialist income is a powerful barrier to e-referral, a barrier ...
The negative aspects of the project included difficulties in billing and collection. [16] A 2001 paper examining three of the original four hospitals with comparable "micro-cost" data determined that "the cost reductions primarily came from nursing intensive care unit, routine nursing, pharmacy, and catheter lab." [17]
The acronym HCPCS originally stood for HCFA Common Procedure Coding System, a medical billing process used by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Prior to 2001, CMS was known as the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA).
The CPT code set describes medical, surgical, and diagnostic services and is designed to communicate uniform information about medical services and procedures among physicians, coders, patients, accreditation organizations, and payers for administrative, financial, and analytical purposes.