Sunday, August 18, 2019

What is EOB and Medical biller responsibility

What is a Explanation of Benefits (EOB)?

The Explanation of Benefits (EOB) document is a summary of the claims your health care providers sent to your health plan for health services provided to you and other family members on the plan. Your EOB is not a bill. It is a statement that shows what health services you received, what claims your health plan paid, and what you may still owe to a health care provider


sample EOB


WHAT information EOB included


The Explanation of Benefits (EOB) is completed. The (EOB) form or report is a statement telling the patient or provider how the insurance company determined its share of the reimbursement. The report includes the following:

a). A list of all procedures and charges submitted on the claim form.
b). A list of any procedure submitted but not considered a benefit of the policy.
c). A list of all the allowed charges for each covered procedures.
d). The amount of the patient deductible, if any, subtracted from the total  allowed charges.
e). The patient’s financial responsibility for cost sharing (co-payment for this claim)
f).The total amount payable by the insurance company on this claim.

Your Explanation of Benefits (EOB) may help you better understand your health care costs The name of the member/ patient.

A detailed list of the services performed. A breakdown of how much  your plan paid for each service. Your deductible, copay, coinsurance and the total you may owe
your provider.

More details on why a claim was — or was not — paid.

A summary of how much you had paid toward your  deductible and out-of-pocket maximum at the time the claim was processed.

Definitions that may help you better understand the EOB.

Review your EOBs. Log in to myuhc.com® to check on claims and see your EOBs. After you visit a provider, your health plan may send you an Explanation of Benefits. It gives you important details about what your plan covers and what you may owe.

EOB: Explanation of Benefits: Medical biller responsibility

When an insurance company processes a claim for health benefits or a claim for a provider contract, it produces a report of how the claim was processed. The claim will be (a) paid, (b) denied or (c) pended. When paid, the medical biller checks the EOB to determine if the claim was paid correctly either per the provider’s contract or per the patient’s contract. Sometimes a claim was sent with multiple procedures but some were left off the EOB. The biller should check to make sure all CPT codes submitted are on the EOB. The biller should check the allowed amount.

Some insurance companies may have an allowed amount that is less than the billed charges. If the provider is non-par, any allowed amount that is less than billed charges should be unacceptable. However, the insurance may pay the non-par claim at the amount pursuant t their contract with their member. However, the member would usually be required to pay the difference between the insurance company payment and billed charges. If the claim is to Medicare or Medicare, the allowed amount would be the Medicare/Medicaid allowed amount. One thing the billr can do is create a cheat sheet in spreadsheet showing the CPT codes used by the provider. The cheat sheet will list the charges, the Medicare and Medicaid allowable amounts. And any provider contract amounts. I also like to add State workers compensation fees payable per CPT code. This way you have easy access to payment amounts due to the provider by contract, workers comp, Medicare and Medicaid. If there are amounts less than billed charges, any amounts applied to the  deductible or coinsurance, the EOB will show this as well as have remark codes and remark code descriptions. For example, lets say you see remark code X20.

On the EOB you may see X20: Allowed amount is based on contract allowed amount. Sometimes the remarks don’t have any sane meaning. You may have to contact the insurance company and ask them what that remark code means. If the provider is non-par watch out for remarks that mention contract discounts or discounts applied to benefit the member. To be honest, the only one being benefitted by a discount is the insurance company, not the member. The insurance company may have sent a facsimile or phone call to the provider asking the provider to accept a discount to the payment. If this happened, you should have been informed of any interim agreements made on individual discounts.

Tuesday, December 12, 2017

Organ System Failure

 Central nervous system failure 

 Hepatic Failure system failure 

 Encephalopathy 

 Stroke 

 Circulatory failure 

 Acute MI 

 Shock 

 Severe trauma 

 Encephalopathy 

 Coagulopathy 

 Metabolic failure 

 Toxic Ingestion (methanol) 

 Severe Acidosis 

 Respiratory Failure 

 Renal failure 

 New onset 

 Hyperkalemia 

 Pneumonia

Critical Care Requirements

 Clinical Requirement of high probability of Clinical Clinical Requirement Requirement of high probability probability of deterioration 

 Time requirement 

 Minimum 30 minutes 

 Excludes separate procedures

Wednesday, December 6, 2017

Common Documentation E/M Down Codes for Medicare records

 HPI-need 4 HPI elements for 99285 need 4 HPI elements for 99285 

 With 3 or less go down to 99283 With 3 or less go down to 99283 

 ROS-need 10 ROS for level 99285 need 10 ROS for level 99285 

 If 2-10 go down to 99284 10 go down to 99284 99285 

 Physical Exam-need 8 systems for 99285 

 If <8 go down to 99284 

 Past/Family/Social Past/Family/Social- need 2 for 99285 need 2 for 99285 

 If just one go down to 99284

99285 Acuity Caveat

 99285 ED visit for the evaluation and management of a patient, which requires these three key components three key components within the constraints within the constraints imposed by the urgency of the patient imposed imposed by the urgency urgency of the patient s patient s' clinical clinical clinical condition and/or mental status 

 Severe Dyspnea Dyspnea - COPD, Asthma Pneumonia COPD, Asthma Pneumonia 

 Unstable Vital Signs Unstable Vital Signs- Trauma, Sepsis Trauma, Sepsis 

 Severe Pain - Long bone fractures open 45 

 Severe Pain - Long bone fractures fractures, open fractures 

 CPR/intubated intubated 

 Should state on chart: Hx/Exam limited by____

Thursday, November 30, 2017

1995 Guidelines for Physical Exam

7 Body Areas 
 Head-including face including face 

 Neck 

 Chest-including breast and axillae 

 Abdomen Back including spine

 Back including spine 

 Genitalia, groin, buttocks 

 Each extremity

 Problem Focused-1 Body System including affected area including affected area (99281) (99281) 


 Expanded Problem Focused - a limited a limited examination of the affected body area or organ system and related body area(s) or 41 organ system and related related body area(s) area(s) or organ system(s) 

 2-4 Body systems including affected 4 Body systems including affected area (99282/99283) (99282/99283)

 Detailed - an extended examination of an extended examination of the affected body area(s) or organ system(s) and any other symptomatic or  system(s) and any other symptomatic symptomatic or related body area(s) or organ system(s) 

 5-7 Body areas or systems 7 Body areas or systems including affected area including affected area (99284) (99284) 

 Comprehensive - a general multi-system

 Comprehensive a general multi system examination 

 8 or more 8 or more organ systems including affected area affected area (99285) (99285)

Friday, November 24, 2017

History Issues

 ROS and PFSH may be recorded by others 

 The provider must reference the elements 

 ROS not as easy to obtain from NNs 

 No need to record things in more than one place 

 ROS elements may be documented in the HPI 

 A chief complaint will generally include at least one ROS 

 Chest pain associated with nausea and vomiting 

 HPI element for associated signs/sxs 

 GI ROS element 

 Same statement may not satisfy multiple sub Same statement may not satisfy multiple sub-elements of elements of HPI or ROS 

 Chest pain since this morning can not be both timing and duration

Saturday, November 18, 2017

Review of Systems

 Allergic/Immunologic 

 Cardiovascular 

 Genitourinary 

 Hematolo Hematologic/Lymph. 

 Constitutional Symptoms 

 Ears, Nose, Mouth, Throat 

 Integumentary 

 Musculoskeletal 

 Neurological 

 Psychiatric

  Endocrine 

 Eye 

 Gastrointestinal 

 Psychiatric 

 Respiratory

 A problem pertinent ROS addresses 1 addresses 1 system (99282/99283) (99282/99283) 

 An extended ROS addresses 2 addresses 2-9 body systems (99284) 32 

 A complete ROS addresses addresses at least at least 10 organ systems (99285)

Past, Family, Social History (PFS)

 Past History  - A review of the patient's past A review of the patient's past experiences with illnesses, injuries, treatments experiences with illnesses, injuries, treatments, past hospitalizations, surgeries, medications, allergies, hospitalizations, hospitalizations, surgeries, surgeries, medications, medications, allergies, allergies, immunizations 

Sunday, November 12, 2017

History of Present Illness

 Severity Severity –moderate chest pain 6 out of moderate moderate chest pain, 6 out of 10 

 Duration-10 minutes, for a week 10 minutes, for a week 

 Modifying Factors–worse with exertion, worse with exertion, unrelieved by Tylenol 26 unrelieved by Tylenol 

 Associated Signs and Symptoms diaphoresis, fever, vomiting

 HPI flushes out the chief complaint in greater detail 

 There are two types of HPI identified for the purpose of coding 

 A brief HPI consists of HPI consists of 1-3 elements elements (99281-99283) 

 An extended HPI consists of at least HPI consists of at least 4 elements elements (99284-99285)

HPI Examples

 Brief- 32 year old male with 32 year old male with left shoulder left shoulder injury, occurred 4 hours ago

 Extended Extended-45 year old female with 45 year old female with left sided, sharp chest pain for 30 minutes with left arm numbness and diaphoresis 28 with left arm numbness numbness and diaphoresis  The pain is worse with exertion

Multiple Modifying Elements

Child with Chief Complaint of fever: Child with Chief Complaint Complaint of fever: 4 hours 4 hours of fever, with of fever, with moderate vomiting moderate vomiting, diaphoresis that is worse at night diaphoresis that is worse at night, right lower quadrant abdominal pain lower quadrant abdominal pain, unrelieved unrelieved by Tylenol

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