Documentation guidelines updated by HCFA
Documentation guidelines updated by HCFA
New, simplified documentation guidelines are being pilot-tested by the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) in Baltimore.
"The basic approach is going back to the 1995 guidelines, making it simpler and specialty-based," says Charlotte Yeh, MD, FACEP, medical director of Medicare policy for the National Heritage Insurance Company in Hingham, MA. "There is more weighted emphasis on medical decision making."
The first set of documentation guidelines was issued in 1995 to clarify codes used under the Current Procedural Terminology coding system. Those guidelines were updated in 1997 in an effort to make them more specialty-based, but many physicians expressed concern that they were too cumbersome, according to Yeh.
The new guidelines aim to reduce the time physicians spend on administrative tasks, such as counting the elements of their services, she says. Instead, physicians will be provided with a series of scenarios for physical examinations and medical decision making to assign an appropriate service level, she explains.
"It’s encouraging that HCFA is clearly trying to keep the dialogue going," she adds. "This shows that HCFA is committed to simpler guidelines which are specialty-based." According to HCFA, new guidelines could be in place as early as 2002.
It’s significant that the documentation guidelines are specialty-based, Yeh emphasizes. "We are moving away from one-size-fits-all guidelines, toward guidelines that work for the unique characteristics of emergency medicine."
Source
- Charlotte Yeh, MD, FACEP, National Heritage Insurance Company, 75 Sgt. William Terry Drive, Hingham, MA 02043. Phone: (781) 741-3122. Fax: (781) 741-3211. E-mail: [email protected].
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