Has your doctor overcharged you?

• How do you fight what you think is an outrageous bill?
• How common are medical billing errors?
• How do you stop out-of-network charges? 
• How can you avoid getting an unexpectedly large medical bill?   
• What’s the No Surprises Act and how does it help us?
• Why should you get a price upfront, for a procedure that you, or someone in your family, needs? 

Believe it or not, medical billing errors are quite common these days. Even though we’ve moved to electronic medical records, the coding process that is supposed to ensure that procedures are properly noted for your insurance provider or Medicare payers can get complicated.  Sometimes as many as three or more codes are needed to describe one procedure before your carrier will approve your coverage.

Recent research notes that as much as 90% of all medical bills have at least one error in them. 

Who pays in the end, and why should you be responsible for these mistakes? 

That’s where “coders” come in:  medical billing coders can be a patient’s best friend. Especially when they can help us understand our bills, correct errors, and reverse coverage denials.

In this episode, we take a deeper, and rather interesting, look behind the scenes with a medical coding expert. These are the folks who keep your medical providers organized so they can focus on keeping you healthy or recovering. 

Either way, we need coders!

There’s a lot more in store for you in this episode, and, as always, a laugh or two to keep us all moving forward.  Tune in as we learn more from Jennifer McNamara, one of the best coding instructors and educators I know.

Additional links of value:

• How new rules help protect us all from surprise medical bills
• Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services
• How to dispute medical bills.
• List of commonly used codes
• New consumer/patient billing protection, with or without insurance

Special Note: the No Surprises Act supplements individual state surprise billing laws. It's important to first check into such protections that have been instituted in your state. One term to research in your state is the All-payer Model Agreement or any rules that help set limits on out-of-network charges. You can also call the CMS help desk line at 1-800=985-3059 for questions directly related to your personal situation.

Guest: Jennifer McNamara CPC, CCS, CRC, CPMA, CGSC, COPC AAPC, is the Director of Education and Coding for Oncospark. She has worked in many specialized areas of Coding including Orthopedics, Plastic Surgery, General Surgery, Ophthalmology, Podiatry, and many more. Her coding team provides Auditing, Consulting, RCM services, Credentialing, and Compliance through our team of experts.

She is the host of the weekly podcast “Life as a Coder” where she discusses the Health Information Management industry and how to succeed in the Business of Healthcare as well as tips for work-life balance.

Host:  Nancy May, Author How to Survive 911 Medical Emergencies, Step-by-Step Before, During, After!  Expert in managing the path of step-by-step caring for an aging parent or family member, even from over 1200 miles away, or more. For a Free File-of-Life to www.howtosurvive911.com. Nancy is also the Co-Founder of CareManity LLC, and the private FaceBook group, Eldercare Success.

Disclaimer: The views, perspectives, and opinions expressed in this show are those of the show guests and not directly those of the companies they serve or that of the host or the producer CareManity, LLC. The information discussed should not be taken as medical, legal, or financial advice. Please seek the advice or your own personal medical, legal or financial advisors as each person’s situation is different. (c) Copyright 2022 CareManity, LLC all rights reserved. CareManity is a trademark of CareManity, LLC.