E/M Guidelines 2019 Updates

Description:

The Medicare documentation guidelines for office visits have 3 components, history, examination, and medical decision making.  Medicare has changed the requirements for history and examination to make the time it takes to document these requirements more efficient.  But if the new requirements are not applied correctly, the provider can fail an audit performed by Medicare or other insurance carriers.  This session will look at the changes and explain how to apply them, but also look at what else is affected by these changes.  This will affect how documentation is audited, but when medical records are requested, the documentation that will need to be sent will be different to represent everything that was used to arrive at the level of service reported.  A provider does not want to be accused of upcoding or downcoding.

Session Highlights:

• Evaluation and Management guidelines for office visits
• What are the new documentation requirements for 2019
• Examples of office visit documentation when the new guidelines are used
• What will be needed to pass an audit
• Applying the new guidelines in the auditing process
• Successfully completing a medical records request based on the new guidelines
• Further changes that will be implemented to office visits in 2021

Why Should You Attend?

Medicare and commercial insurance companies have been scrutinizing documentation for office visits for several years.  Auditing has become a critical part of compliance for professional providers and their practices.  One of purposes of the governmental program Patients over Paperwork was implemented so that providers can spend more time with patients, and less time with redundant documentation.  In the final rule of the physicians fee schedule for 2019, several changes have been made to the documentation requirement for office visits to help providers save time spent on documentation.  It is important to understand what these changes mean and how to apply them.

Who Should Attend?

Coders, Billers, Physicians, Physician Assistants, Nurse Practitioners, Auditors, Doctors, Collectors, Medical Assistants, Residents, Medical Students