Now back to the 8-minute rule math. As if all the mixed rest wasn`t enough to keep you on your toes, here`s another curve for you: In some cases, you probably shouldn`t charge units for a service even if you provided it. Take, for example, iontophoresis. As insurance billing expert Rick Gawenda explained, a patient undergoing iontophoresis can only receive direct and qualified treatment from the therapist for two or three minutes. The rest of the time (once the device is turned on) is not billable because Medicare does not consider it “qualified time”. (By the way, checking the patient`s skin for damage when removing the electrodes would be considered a qualified therapy, making the time billable. But this time is unlikely to be enough to get you past the 8-minute threshold.) Under the 8-minute rule, the therapist could not charge units for that particular treatment in this scenario. Let`s say you provided 30 minutes of therapeutic exercises, 6 minutes of manual therapy and 4 minutes of therapeutic activities, for a total of 40 minutes. In this case, you can charge a total of 3 units.
You would charge 2 units of therapeutic exercise, but you don`t have 8 minutes of manual therapy or therapeutic activities. CMS asks you to add these two elements (equivalent to 10 minutes) and you can charge the code for which more minutes are allocated. Your 3rd session would be billed as manual therapy because you provided more (6 minutes) than therapeutic activities (4 minutes). You will calculate the number of billable units by adding the time for each service: 10 minutes for service 1 + 4 minutes for service 2 + 4 minutes for service 3 = 18 minutes. It depends. Clearly, Medicare providers and other payers who need the 8-minute rule have no choice as to which billing method they want to use. For commercial payers who don`t have a requirement, providers may want to do both calculations to see which method yields the best results. According to this resource, “only one billing method can be used per individual treatment session.” When in doubt, always contact the payer to learn more about their specific billing requirements. Now that you know this rule, you can use it to avoid coding errors so you don`t end up with denials.
To reiterate the issues you need to avoid, here are some common avoidable mistakes when applying this rule. In total, Mr. Jones spent 93 minutes in the examination rooms. 93 divided in 15-minute increments would equate to 6 billing units, but that`s not what is actually due. Although the electrical stimulation lasted 25 minutes, it was unattended. Therefore, it only qualifies for one billing unit. Mixed activities cannot be grouped together. This means that if you do physiotherapy with a patient for just five minutes, your timer will reset before starting the next activity. You can`t bill Medicare until you`ve worked with a patient on an activity for at least eight minutes. If all this talk about quotients and leftovers triggers flashbacks to fifth-grade math – yikes, long division! -Do not worry. WebPT automatically reviews your work for you and notifies you if something is wrong.
All you have to do is how much time you spend on each modality as you go through your normal documentation process, as well as how many units you want to load. If these two totals don`t match, WebPT not only informs you that something is wrong, but we`ll also tell you if you`ve overcharged or underbilled. This way, you can quickly identify and resolve the issue, ensuring accurate payment. In addition, you have a detailed record of the services you have provided on each date of service, which many local MAC auditors require to establish claims and billing processes. As someone who works in the field of medical coding, this blog has greatly expanded my knowledge of regular therapy by 8 minutes! Thank you. Suppliers must calculate the time required for each task. They then use the 8-minute rule to determine the number of units to include in the claim. Yes, I mean, there`s math involved. Not all private insurance companies have adopted this rule, but every federal payer requires it for billing. Let`s discuss some good examples of PT billing under the 8-minute rule: CMS allows you to include any time spent reassessing the patient or training them to deal with their problem. For example, if you reassess a patient`s balance or coordination after performing certain neuromuscular rehabilitation techniques, you can count that time into the minutes you spend on neuromuscular rehabilitation. By the way, the clock starts working as soon as you interact with the patient.
So if you take your patient out of the waiting room and ask them how they are doing (e.g., check their current condition) and observe their gait or movements, then you have started your assessment. Similarly, if you teach the patient new exercises for their home program, or if you teach them safer movement patterns when they get out of bed, you can include these minutes in therapeutic exercise time or therapeutic activity time. The Rule of Eight – which is found in the CPT Code Handbook and is sometimes referred to as the 8-minute AMA Rule – is a mild variation of CMS`s 8-minute rule. The rule of eight still counts billable units in 15-minute increments, but instead of combining the time of several units, the rule is applied separately to each individual timed service. Therefore, mathematics is also applied separately. (Note that the Rule of Eight only applies to timed codes where 15 minutes is indicated as “usual time” in the operational definition of the code.) Before I get into the 8-minute rule, let me explain a little more about the difference between these units. I`ve said before that the service is easier to understand, so let`s start there. Just by name, we know that service providers use these codes (duh). Have you scratched your head about PT billing rules? Download the PT Billing Guide for a complete breakdown of all the information you need to know to get paid. Once the stimulation is complete, guide Mr. Jones through 20 minutes of manual therapy and 20 minutes of therapeutic exercise. How do you charge if you have enough minutes for 3 sessions in total, but you don`t have at least 8 minutes left after you charge for the full 15 minutes? Time-based (or constant presence) codes, on the other hand, allow variable billing in 15-minute increments.
They would use these codes to perform individual services, such as: The 8-minute rule doesn`t just apply to Medicare patients. Private insurance companies also use it to determine how many units of a time-based code can be set on a given day. However, the number of minutes required to form a unit may vary depending on the insurance company. When it comes to billing and coding medical claims, accuracy is key. Avoiding denials will help you and your firm get paid faster and ensure you get the full amount you earn. Billing based on CPT services is different from time-based CPT coding policies. If you divide the total number of timed minutes by 15, you often get a remainder that contains minutes from multiple services. You should only include this remainder in the calculation if it meets the 8-minute rule for one of the services. If you follow all of these steps and avoid common billing errors, you`ll be well on your way to properly filing claims with payers so you can generate revenue quickly.
What if, if you divide your direct time minutes by 15, your balance represents a combination of minutes remaining from more than one service (e.g. 5 minutes of manual therapy and 3 minutes of ultrasound)? Do you charge for a service, all services or none of them? The answer depends on the billing policies you use. By Medicare, as long as the sum of your leftovers is at least eight minutes, you should bill for the individual service with the greatest time, even if that amount alone is less than eight minutes. (In the example above, you would charge for 1 additional unit of manual therapy). 23 minutes ÷ 15 minutes per unit = 1.5 billable units The 8-minute rule has nothing to worry about. With a clear understanding of what the rule means, you can make sure you`re not overloading or overloading. You deserve to be paid for the services you provide under the Medicare rule. MWTherapy can help you comply with Medicare and provide you with built-in tools to help you stay on track. Okay, that was a confusing math lesson! Let`s go through an example and put together everything we`ve learned. As a health care provider, there is a lot of work to be done. You already have to offer treatment to so many patients. This makes it more difficult to manage administrative tasks such as medical billing.
The 8-minute rule states that to receive Medicare reimbursement, you must be treated for at least eight minutes.