tci Part B Insider - 2012 Issue 42

Physician Note: CMS Stresses 'Importance of Legible Medical Records'

Plus: OIG recovered $6.9 billion in FY 2012. You may shake your head when you hear that some physicians maintain incomplete notes, and that auditors ask those practitioners for money back since their documentation didn't support the codes they billed. But have you ever thought that writing illegibly could make you qualify for CMS's interpretation of incomplete notes? "When determining the medical necessity of an item or service billed, Medicare's review contractors must rely on the medical documentation submitted by the provider in support of a given claim," CMS says in MLN Matters article SE1237. "Therefore, legibility...

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