Podiatry is the medical specialty related to diagnosing and treating diseases and injuries of the human foot and ankles. This specialty includes medical, surgical, mechanical, and physical treatments that treat a specialized set of symptoms, diseases and conditions.
Podiatry has treatments for routine care and care for health conditions related to underlying issues, such as metabolic, neurologic, or peripheral vascular disease, injury, ulcers, wounds, and infections.
As with other specialties, podiatry, too, has its own rules and guidelines for coding and billing. According to CMS, insurance will cover only medically necessary and reasonable foot care. Hence billers should be careful about what they claim for.
In Podiatry billing, the billing team should be aware of the categories of foot care services that Medicare does not cover. There are, however, exceptions in these categories. Even for the services that Medicare covers, there are rules and guidelines.
Apart from the general medical billing and coding guidelines, podiatry-specific guidelines have to be adhered to by billers.
Insurance eligibility verification must be thoroughly done before services are rendered by the frontline staff. The patient's insurance policy should be checked for benefits, deductibles, co-pays, exclusions, and policy status. The correct demographic details should be collected. Prior authorization, if needed, should be obtained.
Considering the nature of services and payor rules for podiatry, co-pays form a higher percentage of your practice. Hence frontline staff needs to collect the co-pay amount from the patient at the time of service. Also instituting a financial policy for the practice will ensure stability and growth.
Our medical billing team has been trained in podiatry billing and coding rules. They are also kept abreast of the changes in rules and guidelines in the industry.
Workflow processes are continually tweaked for better performance. Every effort is made to submit clean claims and denials kept to the minimum.
Bristol Healthcare Services is one of the leading billing and coding companies in the country, having served healthcare professionals for over two decades.
Allow us to serve you and watch your podiatry practice expand!
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