Home Forums Discussions Feedback and Recommendations ICD9 Entry and CPT coding - billing features

Does anyone know if AC has yet made it possible to finish ICD-9 & CPT coding and bill without signing the encounter note? There was a post on this last June 2007 but haven't seen any discussion recently.

Also, the search function and entry of ICD9 codes is very cumbersome. Entering and searching for the same codes over and over is way beyond tedious. Seems it would be better to have a top ten list or favorites to select your ICD-9 codes, very similar to what has already been done with CPT codes. You would need to be able to access this both from the patient chart/assessment area as well as the the superbill.

I have heard rumors that the new version will allow coding & billing before signing. The new version is supposed to be out in April or May, I believe?

The whole way that AC handles the ICD-9 codes is extremely terrible, for many reasons.

One potential talk for the Users Conference in June would center on how to fix the ICD-9 Code Lookup so that it would be more usable. I could personally talk about it for a solid hour.

The question is: would anybody be interested in a talk like that?

EricB wrote:
Eric, I don't use the ICD-9 or CPT portions of A.C. I use a separate billing system and would prefer if this feature could be turned off completely.

I posed this question to Tech Support. The answer I received was simply put. "No this cannot be done w/ current version of A.C. I believe this is being addressed in version 4.0"

What you are asking is admittedly different from how I use it. But I agree w/ Brian, your request is currently not avail. Hopefully this will be more flexible w/ next edition.

I guess the old phrase, the more you know, the more you know how little you know, applies here. I set up last week, and it seems pretty smooth. ANy ICD 9 codes or CPT codes that aren't in the program I have as a reference card, and AC accepts them. Also, it alerts me to incomplete codes.

I haven't got paid yet through MTBC, so we'll see...

Hey, congdoc:

I'm not saying the ICD-9 search feature is unusable, but it could be so much better with just a few (seemingly) simple changes.

Probably most people just use the blasted thing and don't give it a second thought, but I am always thinking, "ARRGH... it's almost there; just needs a few more touches...."

Every ICD-9 code should be in our database, but the same ICD-9 code can apply to several diagnoses, and the most common diagnosis associated with a particular ICD-9 code may not be the one its grouped with in our database.

Brian, you are so right about the issue of adding ICD's being cumbersome. I sent a message about how nice it would be to simply type in the code without having to go thru the current time consuming process.

I am a coding maven as a solo practitioner- proper coding means more income. I am the one who enters the Home Health/Hospice CPO informatioh every month because I am the one who knows what diagnoses were addressed during that particular month.


Ann Thomas
anndrakethomasmd@comcast.net

EricB
Thanks so much for your post. Being able to bill before signing off would help the cash flow in my practice.

Ann, how do you add codes to the program after the doctor has signed off on the chart? We have a coder who cannot make changes in the patient's AC so the chart notes never accurately reflect the super bill. Thank you!

Brian, I have an ICD9 database with 15870 codes in it. I also have a set of 333513 keywords associated with these codes. The keywords allow the user to type in "fever" and show all the codes that relate to "fever."

While that is helpful, most docs do not need the 15870 codes in the database, but rather a small subset of less than 200 codes, if even that. So the best way to do this would be to allow the doc to build his/her "basic code set" which will be instantly available at all times. This will not slow down the program.

The doc should also be able to ADD to his code set from the MASTER CODES as he/she sees the need to do so.

If you were able to access the AC database, you could run a query like:

Select distinct(ICD9Code) from tblPatientEncounter

This would give you a single instance of every code you have used in AC...a good jumping off point.

Disclaimer: I don't know what the patient encounter table is called.

Ann Thomas
I agree totally with your comment
We need to be able to just type in a code and go.

what's good about ac tho, is that once you put the code in for a pt, it stays with them on future encounters (altho, if you frequently change dx's for the same pt, it does get cumbersome).