by Christine Woolstenhulme, QMC QCC CMCS CPC CMRS
May 12th, 2021
The objective of the Accountable Care organization is to integrate and consolidate patient care management to improve patient outcomes. Changes and coordination of dental and medical care are already becoming more apparent when dental offices are being required to bill a patient's medical plan for dental visits due to an accident, trauma, sleep apnea, cancer treatment, or oral surgery.
Several states are currently mandating the use of ICD-10-CM codes reported along with the dental codes. For example, Arizona requires a diagnosis code reported on a claim form if the reason for the visit is an underlying medical condition. Check with your state Medicaid for requirements with ICD-10-CM codes reported on a Dental claim form.
In addition, other government payers require the use of diagnosis codes such as BCBS Federal; it is expected for other payers to adopt the use of ICD-10-CM in the future. Check with commercial dental plans on policies requiring the use of medical diagnosis codes. The ADA form has a place to report up to 4 diagnosis codes with a diagnosis pointer indicating the treatment line it is referring to.
The benefits of providers reporting the treatment associated with ICD-10-CM will support areas such as the capture of clinical data, which will assist in supporting evidence-based benefit plans. Healthcare recognizes the relationship to the oral-systemic connections and the need for additional dental services for patients with certain medical conditions.
There are many resources to get your practice started using ICD-10-CM codes; keep in mind there are 69,000 ICD-10-CM diagnoses. However, Dental offices will only use a fraction of these codes, so don't let the complete set of diagnosis codes overwhelm your staff.
Dental providers will mainly code from chapter 11, K00-K14 Diseases of oral cavity and salivary glands. Take a few minutes to get familiar with the different sections used when reporting ICD-10-CM codes; it is not as complicated as it may seem.
Go to Findacode.com for a FREE ICD-10-CM lookup tool.
References/Resources
About Christine Woolstenhulme, QMC QCC CMCS CPC CMRS
Christine Woolstenhulme, CPC, QCC, CMCS, CMRS, is a Certified coder and Medical Biller currently employed with Find-A-Code. Bringing over 30 years of insight, business knowledge, and innovation to the healthcare industry. Establishing a successful Medical Billing Company from 1994 to 2015, during this time, Christine has had the opportunity to learn all aspects of revenue cycle management while working with independent practitioners and in clinic settings. Christine was a VAR for AltaPoint EHR software sales, along with management positions and medical practice consulting. Understanding the complete patient engagement cycle and developing efficient processes to coordinate teams ensuring best practice standards in healthcare. Working with payers on coding and interpreting ACA policies according to state benchmarks and insurance filings and implementing company procedures and policies to coordinate teams and payer benefits.
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