As of January 1, medical practices can bill for discussing advanced directives and end of life planning with patients using existing CPT™ codes.

Although CMS describes this service as a support to primary care, there are no restrictions related to specialty in providing the service.

This no-nonsense presentation will describe the CPT™ rules related to the Advance Care Planning codes and CMS guidance from the Physician Fee Schedule final rule, released at the end of  October. Although CMS is not presently setting a National Coverage Determination, it did describe a payment amount, and when ACP (Advance Care Planning) could be reported with other E/M services.

Bonus: Also a quick review of TCM (Transitional Care Management) and CMS change for 2016!

After the session participants will be able to:

• Implement the service in their practice
• Describe the key requirements that need to be documented in the medical record
• Communicate the key CPT™ and Medicare rules related to Advance Care Planning
• Know when there will–and won’t–be a patient due balance

The sessions included in the MGMA 2016 Financial Management and Payer Contracting Conference were selected to provide timely and practical education on the most important financial management and payer contracting topics that impact today’s medical practices.

By taking advantage of up-to-date and relevant knowledge and tools, attendees will become better positioned to successfully manage the adaptation and change that are necessary in the current healthcare environment.

Medical practices can decrease denials and accelerate payments, by setting up work processes that use advance functions in their software systems to identify, quantify and categorize denials. The purpose is to identify patterns related to coding, enrollment, prior authorization and specific payer performance.

This presentation will focus on using these systems related specifically to ICD-10, but the underlying strategy to understand the causes of denials, and reduce or prevent them in the future is applicable for all denial reasons.

Participants will learn how to:

1. Assess your practice’s current denial process for effectiveness.
2. Identify revenue types and diagnosis code ranges,that are at highest risk of denial.
3. Develop one strategy to prevent diagnosis related denials.