Billing and coding for infusion, injection, and hydration services can be tricky because there are so many detailed steps you need to follow. To ensure you get paid by insurance, you must double-check the drug codes and the billing units that go with them. You also need to generate charges for the infusion services, use the right CPT/HCPCS codes for infusion, and apply modifiers when required. Also, you must focus on keeping your documentation complete and accurate to streamline a perfect infusion billing process. It is no secret that in infusion billing, there are several places where infusion practices with amateur administrative staff members commit mistakes in their billing process and one needs to identify those areas to avoid committing the same mistakes as others do.

Mistakes to avoid in infusion billing

Today you can streamline a perfect billing process by knowing how an infusion billing company avoids the frequent mistakes in the process and ensures prompt reimbursements for your practice. Staring from-

• When you're billing for infusion and injection services, it’s important to prioritize the infusion treatment first. That means infusion should be listed as the primary service. After that, if there are any injections or IV pushes, those should come next. Finally, hydration therapy should be listed last. This order what a professional infusion billing company always uses to ensure everything is properly documented and billed in the right way.

• You can only use one initial code for each patient visit unless it's medically necessary to treat the patient at two separate IV sites. For example, if a patient comes in for treatment at one site and then later in the day needs a different treatment at another IV site, you can bill another initial code for that second visit. Just make sure to use the right modifier, like modifier 59 for Medicare, to show that the second treatment is separate and needed.

• An IV push is a process in which you give the medicine through an IV in 15 minutes or less. You need to be present at the spot throughout the process to keep your patient under watch. Furthermore, if you are giving a medicine through an IV that takes no more than 10 minutes, you can consider it as an IV push. You can only consider an IV push when the medicine takes longer than 15 minutes to administer. Therefore, if you are giving a medicine that takes more than half an hour, it is an IV infusion, not a push.

• Once the first infusion is done, you can bill for sequential infusions if you’re giving a different drug or service through the same IV access. However, there has to be a good medical reason to do this in sequence, not at the same time (concurrent). For example, if you're giving one medication and then another one after that through the same IV line, that's considered a sequential infusion. You can only bill for each sequential infusion once if you're using the same mix of medication.

• If you're giving two types of infusions at the same time through the same IV, that's called a "concurrent infusion." However, you can't bill for hydration ( like fluids ) given at the same time as another infusion because it's not separately payable. For chemotherapy, though, it's usually not done at the same time as other treatments. But if it does happen, you'd have to use a special code for the chemotherapy infusion that doesn't have a listed price.

• You need to show in your records that giving fluids (hydration) is necessary for the patient's health and not just part of another treatment, like during surgery. You should also include how fast the fluids are being given. If the fluids are just used to give medicine or other things, it's called "incidental hydration" and shouldn't be billed. To bill for hydration as a main service, it must be needed for the patient and last longer than 30 minutes. If it's 30 minutes or less, it can't be billed separately. In that case, you would report it with a revenue code, but not with a special code for the treatment. If hydration lasts longer than 30 minutes, you need to show that another treatment was given too, like a new infusion or injection.

You might have already realized the fact that handling the billing and coding for your infusion, injection and hydration services is not an easy affair. But, still, you can avoid all the possible mistakes and streamline a perfect administrative process by partnering up with an infusion billing company. A perfect infusion billing company ensures that your billing process is accurate, compliant and prompt. The best part of hiring a perfect infusion billing company like us Sun Knowledge Inc is that you can give your best in patient care while your billing partner like us can take care of your end-to-end billing process.