Saturday 26 October 2013

Colonoscopy Bowel Prep. Instructions


MORNING PROCEDURE

If you are over 80 years of age, or have severe liver/kidney/heart condition, you need to contact our office for special instructions.

Bowel preparation is a very important part of Colonoscopic Examination. Good bowel preparation allows your Doctor to carefully and thoroughly look for and safely remove small polyps / lesions that if not picked up, could enlarge overtime. In some cases, with large amounts of faecal material still in the colon at the time of the examination, your Doctor may have to abandon the procedure if it is unsafe to continue. This would create more hassles as you will have to undergo bowel preparation again for a repeat procedure. Thus, PLEASE strictly follow the instructions.

Please ask your Doctor or our staff about stopping any blood thinners (aspirin, Clopid, warfarin – usually one week before procedure) and Diabetes medications adjustments. You also need to stop Iron tablets one week before procedure.

From two days before the procedure:

Saturday 5 October 2013

Wound Care Coding Guidelines In 2013

With immense coding and billing changes this year, wound care codes are no exception. In fact, there are considerable changes to CPT codes and coding guideline changes every year. Some of the important changes in wound care coding guidelines are as follows:


  • Degree specific codes have been removed. So now all appropriately trained and licensed healthcare practitioners or in a more professional term “Qualified Healthcare Professional” can use all CPT codes. This means that there will be no PT codes or RN specific codes including surgical codes which are also not physician specific. Qualified healthcare professional can also use a code that describes a procedure appropriately specifying providers training and scope of practice.

Friday 4 October 2013

Medicare coverage of colorectal cancer screenings

With Medicare, you must be 50 or older to be eligible for coverage of most colon cancer screenings. The exception to this is a colonoscopy, for which there is no minimum age requirement.
Medicare covers the following screenings:
  • Fecal occult blood test - once a year (every 12 months) for persons age 50 or older
  • Flexible sigmoidoscopy - once every four years (48 months) for persons at high risk and less frequently for other persons
  • Colonoscopy - once every two years (24 months) if you are at high risk for colorectal cancer (e.g. have a family history of the disease or have had colorectal polyps or colorectal cancer, or have had inflammatory bowel disease). If you are not at high-risk, Medicare covers colonoscopies every 10 years (but not within 48 months of a screening flexible sigmoidoscopy).

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