In January, representatives from Avanza attended the Ambulatory Surgery Center Association’s (ASCA) Winter Seminars in San Antonio. These seminars focused on coding and reimbursement, finance and accounting, and regulatory and legal risks.
Vicki Dekker, Avanza senior consultant and business office specialist, came away from the event with numerous ASC strategies. “It was a great seminar,” she says. “The presentations and speakers were excellent.”
Dekker spent much of her time attending the coding and reimbursement sessions. Here are a few of her key takeaways:
- If there was one consistent message Dekker says she heard from the speakers, it was how important it is as coder to have a good relationship with the ASC’s physicians. “Great coders work closely with their physicians in assisting them to document exactly what was performed in their operative report to capitalize on reimbursement.”
- ENT can be challenging specialty to code if a coder does not pay close attention to the procedures being performed. “This specialty has a lot of bilateral billing, so it is especially important to capture all procedures performed,” she says.
- A presentation on general surgery shared several examples of how to measure a lesion, which is very important as proper (or improper) measurement can impact reimbursement if it is not coded correctly.
For the ASC consulting work Dekker is performing for Avanza, she also came away with education in areas including orthopedic and spine coding, fraud and abuse, the 2017 ASC Medicare Reimbursement Update and HIPAA. “I found the session on security very well done, with great suggestions for keeping staff and patients safe,” she says.
Avanza is looking forward to participating in future ASCA events, including the ASCA 2017 annual meeting in Washington, D.C. in May.