Now is the time to take your career to the next level! In a challenging environment, the person best equipped for the job will be able to save it and have more career advancement opportunities and a bigger paycheck. It all starts with your decision to invest on your training and education for professional growth.
If you have been a medical coder for at least a couple a years and feel as if you are not making any headway, a Certified Anesthesia and Pain Management Coder (CANPC™) Credential could just be what you need to help you get ahead.
A CANPC™ is an AAPC seal that states you are a cut above the rest. This is why coders all over the country aspire for this gold standard. It is an industry-recognized prerequisite to boosting your career as coder!
We at CodingCert bring you closer to this standard of excellence. Gather your colleagues to host a 3-day onsite camp in your facility!
What is an On-Site Training Camp?
The On-Site Training Camp is an intensive 3-day course where CodingCert customizes a program and brings a speaker directly to your office. You and your team can prepare for the certification exam from the comforts of your facility.
Our AAPC-certified instructors will give you the roadmap so your Team can pass the AAPC’s CANPC™ Exam on your first 1st try by preparing you to hurdle the following:
- Selecting the appropriate CPT® codes for surgical cases and cross walking to the appropriate ASA code
- Proper use of modifiers common for anesthesia cases
- Determining time units and total units for anesthesia cases
- Rules and regulations of Medicare billing including (but not limited to) incident to, teaching situations, shared visits, consultations and global surgery
- Coding per NCCI, ICD-9-CM, CPT® Modifiers and both the 1995 and 1997 Documentation Guidelines
- Medical terminology
- Anatomy and physiology
Put Modifier 23 Into Good Use With These 3 Steps
Do you have a complete grasp of what ‘unusual anesthesia’ actually means?
If your physician requests anesthesia for a three-year-old child who needs suture removal, you might be able to classify it as out-of-norm and append modifier 23 (Unusual anesthesia) to the procedure code. However, there are rules to follow. If you don’t want to end up appealing claims with modifier 23, keep to these 3 important tactics.
1. Make Sure You Meet Criteria
There’s more to modifier 23’s descriptor of “unusual anesthesia” than meets the eye. Appendix A of your CPT® book provides more details on the definition of this modifier:
“Occasionally, a procedure, which usually requires either no anesthesia or local anesthesia, but because of unusual circumstances must be done under general anesthesia. These circumstances may be reported by adding the modifier 23 to the procedure code of the basic service.”
If you dissect it further, you’ll find two basic criteria that you should meet:
- Use of general anesthesia when it’s not normally necessary for a procedure; and
- Use of anesthesia brought about by unusual circumstances.
2. Ask What’s Unusual With The Circumstance
Going back to the example mentioned in the first paragraph, notice that an element of ‘unusual circumstances’ is present. In this case, the patient’s age (three years old) could help justify anesthesia. If anesthesia was necessary, make sure your provider documents why the patient needed anesthesia. Other underlying conditions that help justify anesthesia include Parkinson’s disease (332.x), mental retardation (317-319), claustrophobia (300.29, Other isolated or specific phobias), cerebral palsy (343.x, Infantile cerebral palsy), and 437.8 (Other ill-defined cerebrovascular disease).
3. Verify General Anesthesia
Reporting modifier 23 also requires that the physician has administered general anesthesia, not monitored anesthesia care (MAC). Again, a patient’s age or physical condition can help determine if a general anesthesia is justifiable. The extent of the service or length of time necessary can also justify general anesthesia. For instance, most debridements only require local anesthetic, but a physician may opt to perform a more extensive debridement in the OR, and request that an anesthesiologist provides the needed service.
Reminder: Payers could have their own guidelines as to the use of modifier 23, so better check with them before you submit your claim.
Proper use of anesthesia-specific modifiers is just one of the many subjects you should prep for when taking the Certified Anesthesia Coder exam developed by the AAPC. If you want a Certified Anesthesia and Pain Management Coder (CANPC™) credential call our certification specialists today at tel. no. 866-458-2962.
