Billing Questions

[kidthor]

Hi all - I work for a big academic medical center that does its billing via an internal hospital-owned entity. The internal billing entity is not anesthesia-specific, although they have a decent number of anesthesia dedicated coders/billers. I suspect there is a lot that isn't captured in our coding/billing.

Have any of you done your own audit of your billers? Do they do a decent job or do they miss a lot?

One thing it seems we don't bill for is any sort of equipment. E.g. A-Line kits, CVC kits, epidural kits, etc. But I see that the surgery side bills for EVERYTHING (all the way down to sutures, dressings, and chloraprep). Do you regularly bill patients for these things? Is this a common source of lost revenue?

Do y'all in SDN world have any tips on how to learn more about billing? Is the ASA Crosswalk/RVU combo deal worth investing in? Any good webinars?

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[Mman]

Hi all - I work for a big academic medical center that does its billing via an internal hospital-owned entity. The internal billing entity is not anesthesia-specific, although they have a decent number of anesthesia dedicated coders/billers. I suspect there is a lot that isn't captured in our coding/billing.

Have any of you done your own audit of your billers? Do they do a decent job or do they miss a lot?

One thing it seems we don't bill for is any sort of equipment. E.g. A-Line kits, CVC kits, epidural kits, etc. But I see that the surgery side bills for EVERYTHING (all the way down to sutures, dressings, and chloraprep). Do you regularly bill patients for these things? Is this a common source of lost revenue?

Do y'all in SDN world have any tips on how to learn more about billing? Is the ASA Crosswalk/RVU combo deal worth investing in? Any good webinars?

anesthesia equipment is billed out on the hospital charge side (facility fee), not the anesthesia professional services side. I also doubt the surgeons themselves are billing for sutures, that will also come out in the facility fee.

 

[kidthor]

anesthesia equipment is billed out on the hospital charge side (facility fee), not the anesthesia professional services side. I also doubt the surgeons themselves are billing for sutures, that will also come out in the facility fee.

Indeed the surgeons themselves are not - but I can see the OR nurses somehow enter this info and the surgery related items are billed for. I suspect the hospital could be billing for anesthesia stuff (kits and the like) but they aren't? This could be line-item billed for via part of the facility fee?

 

[jwk]

Indeed the surgeons themselves are not - but I can see the OR nurses somehow enter this info and the surgery related items are billed for. I suspect the hospital could be billing for anesthesia stuff (kits and the like) but they aren't? This could be line-item billed for via part of the facility fee?

Are you sure they're not? Or is there some all-encompassing generic "anesthesia" charges on the hospital bill? My recent shoulder arthroscopy generated a $20k hospital bill (pre-insurance discount of course). Of that, $4000 or so was charged for "anesthesia". Anesthesia professional services are charged separate from the hospital by the private anesthesia group, as is the surgeon's fee.