Focus on Socioeconomics

Updating Coding, Reimbursement Courses
In response to members’ interest in hearing more on CPT and ICD-9 coding, Medicare contracting issues and subspecialty case coding, PDP has redesigned its coding and reimbursement courses to help you and your office staff sharpen your coding, reimbursement and financial analysis skills. Descriptions of two new coding and reimbursement courses follow:

• Mastering Expert Techniques in Neurosurgical Coding, a beginner level course specifically designed for office staff, practice administrators, and other non-medical staff looking to familiarize themselves with basic neurological anatomy and terminology, as well as billing and coding procedures. The course will begin with an overview of medical terminology and continue with an in-depth explanation of the reimbursement process, including a discussion on commonly misunderstood CPT codes and documentation guidelines for office, clinic and inpatient visits. Participants will have the opportunity to take part in neurosurgical case discussions and gain a greater understanding of the coding and reimbursement cycle.

• Managing New Reimbursement Challenges in Neurosurgery begins with an overview of calculating revenue value units and ICD-9 and CPT coding principles, then continues with a discussion on Medicare contracting, subspecialty case coding and E&M coding documentation. Also included will be a discussion on how to code ancillary staff services correctly.

  This course is designed for physicians and administrative staff looking to expand their coding expertise. An optional pre-course on anatomy and terminology specifically for office staff is also available.

New Practice Management Course
Also in an effort to meet members’ growing needs, PDP has designed a special practice management course titled, “Designing Better Business Systems.” Created specifically for physicians, practice administrators and office staff looking to enhance business systems and improve their overall compliance, this half-day course will run back-to-back with “Managing New Reimbursement Challenges in Neurosurgery,” (in selected locations) and review key practice systems and identify points of management distress.

The course will discuss marketing, staff training and development, financial systems and compliance planning. A highly skilled consultant from KarenZupko & Associates will provide participants with the tools to integrate and manage practice systems and increase overall productivity.

Consultation Corner
To reinforce its commitment to practice management concerns, the Professional Development Program will also sponsor a special consultation booth at this year’s AANS Annual Meeting in San Francisco, California. Members can pose questions to highly-qualified practice management consultants on topics ranging from coding and reimbursement to practice mergers and contract negotiations, and from retirement policies to compliance plans and more. In addition, members can arrange, by appointment, a free 30-minute, one-on-one consultation with a representative from Conomikes Associates, Inc. — a renowned practice management consulting firm.

The exhibit booth will be in the Exhibit Hall of Moscone Convention Center. The one-on-one consultations will be held adjacent to the Hall. Only 43 appointments will be accepted on a first-come, first-served basis. To schedule an appointment, please visit the onsite Member Services booth beginning Monday, April 10.

For more information on upcoming courses, as well as the consultation corner, contact the Professional Development Department at (888) 566-AANS.