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New to Billing using the CMS 1500

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kkelley831:
We are billing for mental health services. The amount of providers would just depend on the number of clients we have with insurance. I have found a program that is electronic that assists with filling in the CMS 1500 form but nothing more than if I were to write it out. I will look into finding a billing class. If you guys have any suggestions please let me know.
Thank you again for all of your help!!

Alice Scott:
Actually we offer online medical billing courses at www.medicalbillingstudycourse.com
We offer 10 individual courses or 4 bundled courses with email and phone support.  We also offer ongoing  support with our forum after the courses are completed.  The courses were written by Michele Redmond, Merry Schiff and me.  Linda Walker also helped on the HIPAA course.  Merry will be glad to give you more info.  She's out of the office today.

shanbull:

--- Quote from: kkelley831 on February 20, 2014, 11:59:26 AM ---We are billing for mental health services. The amount of providers would just depend on the number of clients we have with insurance. I have found a program that is electronic that assists with filling in the CMS 1500 form but nothing more than if I were to write it out. I will look into finding a billing class. If you guys have any suggestions please let me know.
Thank you again for all of your help!!

--- End quote ---

To be honest I've never taken an actual billing class, but I'm not the norm. The owners of this forum do offer some courses, they can fill you in on what they have to offer for introductory level courses.

Mental health is one of the more straightforward specialties to bill for, so it's a good way to get into this stuff. Also the field is likely to grow because due to the ACA, reimbursement for the specialty has improved and so has coverage for patients who need mental health services. The great thing about billing for it is it's really based on time more than the content of the treatment, so it's much easier to know what to code than for other specialties.

The Medicare Learning Network has some fantastic info sheets on all kinds of topics and some webinars, most of their materials are free: http://www.cms.gov/Outreach-and-Education/Medicare-Learning-Network-MLN/MLNGenInfo/index.html?redirect=/MLNGenInfo

Also, to explain Medicare: CMS Medicare is the national website - all of the policy information and standards apply nationwide. However, you also have a local Medicare jurisdiction that a contracted company oversees. The company varies by geographic location/state. Your local Medicare jurisdiction has "local coverage determinations" that also apply. So when you are looking into Medicare policies on issues, make sure you are checking both the national guidelines and any LCD's for your jurisdiction. Medicare is generally where you're going to start researching a specific topic because more often than not, private insurers default to Medicare guidelines anyway.


Here are some good introductory explanations on coding:

http://www.asha.org/practice/reimbursement/coding/code_intro.htm

http://www.medicalbillingandcodingu.org/introduction-to-hcpcs-level-i-coding/ (this site has links to several schools on billing/coding, I am not endorsing any of them)

http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/dl/free/0073374504/893447/Chapter03.pdf

Most of these examples are not specific to mental health billing, but having a good general understanding of how things work is important so that when you get into the specialty details, you can focus on what is unique to that specialty.

Edit: Alice beat me to it about the courses offered here. I haven't taken one but I can tell you the ladies are around here all the time answering questions, so they are available to clarify anything you might have questions about. This is not necessarily true of other billing courses.

Michele:

--- Quote from: shanbull on February 20, 2014, 01:12:12 PM ---

Also the field is likely to grow because due to the ACA,

--- End quote ---

Because by the time it's all sorted out we will all be seeking mental health services.   ;D  Sorry I couldn't resist. 

Merry:
Out of the office but thank goodness for cell phones. I would be happy to help you if you have any questions about the medical billing course that we have.

Merry

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