I hope you don't mind a biller visiting your board

[Amhet1]

Dang Marilyn, I would have to say that you seem the be the epitome of aggressive collections! My hat is off to you!

Just for gee-whiz, have you ever tracked what it costs you or your service for all the time you have to put in to generate your level of reimbursement on a typical bill?

(This question is for any billers out there willing to an old EMT a new trick)

My other question has to do with the actual coding and billing going to Medicare and private insurances.

(Mind you, this is coming from an old EMT that knows about as much of billing and coding as I do about performing an episotomy on llama's)....

Last time I actually applied myself to learning Medicares rules, they just wanted the HCPCS code without all the ICD-9 and CPT codes. I know that AAA and others are pushing for some sort of ICD-9 system for EMS.

Bear with me while I attempt to actually develop a cogent question or 2....

What is Medicare etal wanting on the HCFA 1500 in support of the HCPCS these days? I realize that what is valid today may not be tomorrow, and this question could generate a rather verbose answer.... But if you can, try and keep it simple for us slow folks

In case that question wasnt as big a pain as I expect, heres another one. In ya'lls ventures into EMS billing, have you seen any trends in documentation that could make things easier for the billing side?

The more I think about this, the more questions I come up with!

How much of ya'lls workload is paper billed vs software? What software are you using now or used previously? What do you like/dislike about it?

[Richard B the EMT]

I take a small bit of umbrage to classifying ANY call to the ER as an emergency run. I have done runs where the justification for the ambulance was that the patient needed a supapubic (spelling?) tube changed, and was so stiff they couldn't bend in the middle to fit in a wheelchair for ambulette transport. (Most times, the tube got changed, and the patient returned to the sending skilled care facility without removing the patient from the stretcher.)I just got paperwork to bill both Medicaid and Medicare, and this was not a 9-1-1 ambulance service provider.

FYI, this was also 1975 to 1985, in New York City and state, so local rules might not cross state lines, or even still be operative as they were back then.