By Adam Abramowitz, Senior Manager, Sales and Marketing
Earlier this spring, the Health Care Compliance Association hosted its first in-person annual conference in three years. CBIZ KA Consulting Services (LLC) made the trip to Phoenix and we had a great experience. Although attendance for providers and vendors was down compared to pre-pandemic levels, those who attended seemed to really want to be there and we had a lot of activity at our tradeshow booth. Overall it was an extremely successful conference for us. Here were a couple of key takeaways from the conference:
E&M Audits
In 2021 office-visit E&M guidance changed, with new time-based standards introduced and a further refinement regarding medical decision making criteria. It’s clear in talking with people at the tradeshow that many providers want to audit their E&M coding performance as it relates to the 2021 changes. And the timing is right. CBIZ expects audit activity to be increasing in this area and many organizations don’t have a solid understanding of their overall E&M coding compliance.
Telehealth Compliance
During the pandemic, the utilization of telehealth services exploded. Consequently, many compliance professionals are concerned that their providers aren’t coding and billing telehealth services compliantly. CBIZ believes that telehealth compliance will be a major area of focus for payers and auditors in that there are several aspects of telehealth coding and billing that could lead to denied claims. Providers are right to start to look at their telehealth utilization to see if they face potential risk.
Specialty Providers
What CBIZ found particularly interesting about this conference was how many specialty providers were in the market for services. LTACHs, SNFs, rehab facilities, behavioral health organizations, specialty physician practices – these organizations were aggressively looking for solutions, especially those that were coding and billing related.
CBIZ will provide periodic updates regarding what we observe at conferences and tradeshows to let you know what is “hot” in the field. If you have any questions about our services or solutions, please contact Adam Abramowitz at 609-220-5627.