Education about infection control is actually one of the most important tools in the fight against the spread of infection. As well as educating the healthcare professionals involved, it is also important to take steps to educate the patients, so that they can play an important part in protecting themselves and others.

Start with the very basics

Teaching patients the very basics of infection control can drastically cut down on the spread of disease. Simple things like washing their hands with soap and water, rather than just washing with cold water can help to save lives. Another trick is to sneeze into your elbow, rather than onto your hands. If people sneeze into their hands, and then subsequently touch things around them, infection can spread easily. Many germs can live on a surface for a significant amount of time, so germs which are transferred from a patient’s hands to the door handle, can then be picked up by another person who touches that door handle.

Make infection control education reassuring, not frightening

If you are teaching patients about essential aspects of infection control, make the process a reassuring one, rather than a terrifying one. Patients are more likely to respond to something if they are comfortable with the notions that are being taught. Remember that patients tend to be in a lonely and vulnerable position, because of their current health condition, and taking a frightening approach to infection control can leave patients in a mentally unstable position. Scaring patients can lead to paranoid actions and over-engagement in the process, which can both lead to health concerns of their own. Taking a frightening or negative approach to the issue can also leave patients afraid to ask questions, meaning that they will not be happy to clarify things that they don’t understand properly. For some patients, it can be helpful to carry out the majority of the educational process when they have a friend, family member or advocate with them.

Reinforcing by doing

Reinforce the need for proper infection control by doing the steps that you have been teaching. This shows that your words were not hollow, and that you are also following the same steps, to help to prevent the spread of infection. For example, you can say “I’m just going to wash my hands”, before you carry out a procedure, so that they patient feels reassured and reminded of the importance of handwashing. You can also gently remind them to do the same thing. The more that they do something, the more likely it is to stick in their minds in future.

Provide education in multiple formats

It is important that everyone fully understand the need for infection control, so be willing and able to provide infection control advice in multiple formats. For example, some people respond well to pamphlets about infection control, because these pamphlets allow them to read and re-read the information, meaning that they can take it all in properly. Pamphlets also offer the opportunity for information in multiple languages.

More about the infection control process at http://orange-restoration.com/additional-services/san-diego-infection-control/

Want to learn how to use the GoWiWi attack strategy? Stay with us here and learn everything necessary to be successful using this strategy. That includes things like how to deploy, matchmaking and army composition.

So what is GoWiWi? Simply put, it’s a troop composition plan that many of the game’s top players are finding very powerful. When you use it correctly, you can get two stars on absolutely ANY base. Proven players are calling GoWiWi the most consistent attack strategy ever available in the game. It’s made up of Golems, Witches and Wizards. There are also Barbarians and Archers for the purpose of luring and Wallbreakers to make sure your army runs strong through the base. You will need 3 Golems, 4 Witches, 5 to 7 Barbarians, a dozen or more Archers, between 12 and 22 Wallbreakers and 10 to 15 Wizards.

I have 3 Golems, but I only have 10 Wizards. That’s the case because at Town Hall 9, there is reduced army camp space compared to what’s available at Town Hall 10. To deal with this, you have to either have a Golem in your Clan Castle or 5 Wizards. My strategy is usually to take 15 Wizards along with 2 Golems (in addition to the one in the Clan Castle) since my Golems are only level 1 for the moment.

Choosing The Best Base To Attack

When choosing which base you’d like to attack, it’s important to think just the opposite of how you’d think if you were attacking with Hogs. In that case, you’d want the most compact base with defenses that are close together. With GoWiWi, however, you want to work with a base that’s spread out so your Golems and Skeletons have plenty of room. If you’re trying to attack a tighter base layout, rather check out these GoWiPe variations (like HoGoWiPe).

This base has three wall segments around the Town Hall, but there are no sections that intersect. That makes it really easy for my Wallbreakers to get in. Plus, luring is easy since both heroes and the Clan Castle are outside the base.

A Bit About Spells

The Lightning, Jump, Rage and Freeze spells all work with GoWiWi. It’s your choice what will work best. In general, you only want to use Jump when using 8 to 14 Witches. At Town Hall 9, I would recommend using 1 Lightning and 3 Rage. At number 10, I would use I Lightning, 2 Rage and 2 Freeze for the Infernos.

The Lightning spell works for taking down CC troops. The Rage spell does its job for breaking through to the Town Hall.

Something About Deployment

Deployment is the most important part now that you have a grasp on the basics. Step one for a successful raid is to lure the Heroes and Clan Castle troops out. That requires either dropping an Archer or a Barbarian near them.

Then, you’ll want to bring the Heroes to the side from which you’d like to stage your attack. I also like to go in from the bottom, so that’s how I do it most of the time. Once they’re there, put a few Barbarians and Archers in front of them and then put Witches in the corner. Once the Witches are set, drop 3 or 4 Wizards on top to help manage the BK.

After you’re certain that both of the heroes are destroyed, it’s time to bring on the Golems. This is a bit tricky because you have to juggle a lot of things at the same time. And it takes practice to get it right. Start by putting down a single Golem on either the right or left. The base will determine how far apart the Golems need to be.

Drop a single Golem, then 2 or 3 Wallbreakers, then 6 or 7 Wizards. Repeat this on the opposite side so that you can clear away all outside buildings. This makes a clear pathway for the Wizards, Witches and Heroes headed for the center of the base. Then put down one more Golems in the middle of the Witches as soon as defenses appear to start targeting the Witches.

NOTE: You may need to put down the middle Golem before the one on the other side sometimes.

With all three Golems down, use a Rage spell on the middle entrance. As your troops move through, keep a stream of your Wallbreakers moving. Don’t drop them all in a single line, otherwise a Mortar or Wizard Tower could take all of them out at once and mess up your raid.

When you see only a single layer of walls left around the center, send in your last Wallbreakers and move on to Town Hall.

All you need to do now is drop in your Heroes, and then you grab your two easy stars.

Oh no! It looks like we forgot one of the buildings outside, so the Heroes went after it instead of heading to the center. That costs us 3 stars, but we got 2 stars, so the overall success of the raid is pretty good. How about that?

Not quite there yet? Start by learning to set up a th7 war base.

Beauty has been a huge market ever since advertising and media blew up out of proportion. There are tons of products launched every year that promise people to correct their uneven skin tone, or make their lashes look longer, or even make them lose all the excess weight instantly. Lots of promises are made, only to be broken almost immediately after they are bought. Unfortunately, none of the beauty products that guarantee you freedom from wrinkles, crow’s feet and fine lines really work. One product that does work beautifully for the elimination of wrinkles and fine lines, and is non-surgical, is called Botox.

Considering the fact that Botox is extremely popular among the aging baby boomers and is continually growing to become the hottest commodity available to people out there,  it is not shocking to know that there is also a growing demand for medical professionals that are certified to perform this procedure. While many medical professionals in the United States qualify to receive the Botox injections training, not many realize how easy it is to do so. For starters, Botox training can be completed in just one day including the practical training. You can opt for the one day training at National Laser Institute’s medical aesthetics school if you are short on time allowing you to complete your Botox training course in just one weekend. It is a great opportunity if you have plenty of other things that keep you busy during the week. If you are not hard-pressed on time, then you can consider getting yourself enrolled in an intensive 12 days training. Besides the wonderul time factor, National Laser Institute’s medical aesthetics school also grants you your continuing medical education (CME) credits while you are doing your Botox training. It is a great way to reach your minimum 40 credits criteria for the year without having to spend too much time. Another added advantage to completing a Botox training, is the fact that there is no insurance middleman for this cosmetic treatment. With an average cost of a Botox treatment being $500, and customers willing to spend that kind of money, it is very likely that  this price tag will be all going to you.

Besides being relatively less expensive and less painful than its surgical counterparts, Botox provides almost immediate results to its clients. It is also a lot safer than going under the knife and is super fast with no downtime. It is, however, important for you as a Facial Esthetic Healthcare Professional to understand the needs of your patients and to suggest to them a procedure accordingly. In order to be able to provide to your patients effectively, you must consider offering procedures such as facial injection therapies, non-surgical face lifts, brow lifts, lip augmentation, and laser skin treatments among others.

http://dentox.com/botox-training

So, it’s going to take a lot of effort from your part to actually get in bed, if you would, with a sleep doctor.  What I would do is look at the area first of all.  See who your initial GPs are.  If you already have a GP, start talking with them for a start.  The other big group is cardiologists.  If you have a cardiologist, start talking with them about what it is you’re interested in doing and what you can do.

Get in on there and get some literature.  Make sure you get all your diligence and your homework so that when you sit down and talk with them, whether it be a lunch or an after-hour, a meeting or something of that nature that they feel very comfortable and confident that you know what it is that you’re talking about what you’re doing.

I happen to be fortunate enough to be in an area where there are a lot sleep doctors.  They are primarily internists who basically have done an initial residency in sleep.  So, that’s where I hook into with those guys, and I’m also tapping in to a lot of cardiologists as well.  So, it’s going to take a lot of networking, but you’ve got to be able to present the fact that you really are confident and know what you’re doing when it comes to sleep in order to get them on board.

Matt:

Excellent.  The next question really regards your case fee and courtesy billing.  They’re kind of interested in know what ledge you did that, the particular method, and what, in your experience, is the biggest plus of that facet?

Dr. Cress:

Oh, two things.  Let me go with the biggest plus.  What you do that day, you make that day, you take home that day.  It’s really nice.  All your overhead costs and everything is covered, whether it’s a DNA appliance from Arrowhead or it’s one of their oral appliances that you’re using.

If you recall that and this gentleman may not have heard this story ahead of time, we decided early on that if we’re going get into this, we’re not going to be married to insurance companies.  We’re going to present the cases as a case fee.  I’ll tell you what my case fee is.  It’s $3750 whether it’s a DNA appliance for orthodontics or it’s a DNA appliance for OSA or it’s an additional OSA appliance with a SUAD or SomnoDent, it’s $3750.  That is inclusive of everything.

Well the patients that up front, and we do billings to their insurance.  Again, I’ve given checks back for $3750 all the way down to $68, but the patients already know that.  So, it was just a mindset that we had early on, and we’ve learned, for example, the Blue Cross Blue Shield example that I gave where we got no reimbursement all the way up to the gap exclusion.  Those are lessons that we’ve learned, but we were never penalized for it early on.  The patient’s penalized for it, if you would, so to speak, but they’re going to have to pay for treatment either way.

So, again, it was just a mindset.  I learned it from making my wife do it, from the insurance perspective in her psychiatry practice, and it’s just been a win-win situation. It just gets rid of so many headaches and so many issues and stuff associated with trying to collect.

Matt:

Excellent.  The next question I’m still trying to paraphrase it as best as possible.  The question starts off with, “It sounds as though you were a traditional dentist initially.  How did you make the transition to sleep dentistry, and how do you present sleep dentistry to your patients that were part of your general practice?”

Dr. Cress:

He was absolutely right. I was a general dentist for a period of time, getting burned out, and started snooping around.  Actually, I went to a sleep meeting in, again, San Antonio, the TDA, and I just got totally turned on by the whole area.  So, I couldn’t get enough, and I probably have 300, 400 hours in sleep in the past year with regards to CE courses.

So, that has just kind of transpired and grown and fueled my fire going on with regards to it, but, again, I started and looked at the patient as an overall individual from a health care perspective, not from how many fillings I can do, do they need a crown, what’s my production for the day.  Basically, I focused in on the patient and their overall healthcare and providing their healthcare to them.

I will tell you, every single patient picks up and reads that.  “Oh, he doesn’t really care about this filling or this cavity.  He cares more about my health.  Yes, I do snore.  Yes, I am tired.  Yes, I bark at my kids too much.  My husband and I are having issues,” but really, what is it?  It’s because you’re tired.  You don’t have the cognitive responses that you should have from an individual that’s been well-rested.

So, that basically is what turned me on, what fueled the fire, and how I started at it is the basic Epworth.  Then, again, like I said earlier, if you guys sign up for additional courses in dental sleep medicine, you’ll learn that when we see bruxism and we see tori and we see all this, we think it’s overstress or it’s genetics.  No, there’s research out there that supports the fact that all those are associated with sleep, and then you have the co-morbidities associated with sleep.

When you start talking about people’s overall health, their cardiovascular issues, their diabetes, their impotence to you name it, their weight gain, their weight-associated lost in weight, weight gain and fluctuation, they start getting turn on and they go, “Hey, you’re more than my dentist.  You’re becoming my health care provider.”

Matt:
Excellent, and I guess this question is a follow-up to that.   It says, “I’m a dentist who uses a CPAP machine, and I find it to be very complicated process at night.  In your experience, how do patients receive these OSA treatments that you present?”

Dr. Cress:

Well, I will tell you this.  If I give them their appliance and they wear it, I go back to them and take their appliance away from them, we’re in Texas.  So, in Texas, we pack guns, they’re probably going to shoot me.  They will never go back to CPAP.  People who we have talked about CPAP with and trying to get them off those appliances into oral appliances have been phenomenal.

Two of the cases I just received, full-mouth cases, I just seated this past week, both of them were CPAP users.  Those CPAP machines have dried out their mouths, have run out their teeth, and I have done full mouth rehabilitation on both of those patients as a result of a side effect from CPAP.  So, that’s a real simple sell.

Even though it’s a huge dollar amount, they’ll do anything about it.  Now, keep in mind, when I do a full mouth rehab on a patient with CPAP, I’ll automatically give them the oral appliance.  It’s very well-received.  I mean in Houston, we have a lot of travelers who do a lot of international traveling, a lot of traveling for CPAP wearers, and the fact that they can just throw that device in their bag and go is, again, an immediate sell.

A lot of those patients, I would say a good 90% of those patients when we talk about insurance benefits to them, they don’t care.  They write a check.  They throw in a credit card.  They could care less.  They want an appliance. If they get something back from medical insurance, great, but they’re so sick of the CPAP device.  I will tell you, 95% to almost 100% of the CPAP wearers have no clue that there’s an alternative to them, have no clue, and we are the alternative, the oral appliance.

Matt:

Excellent.  We have three questions remaining.  They’re short ones.  The first one is in regards to the Epworth Sleep Scale.  Can you have your assistant ask those questions, or is it required the doctor be the one doing the questioning?

Dr. Cress

No, our hygienists do it.  Our oral hygienists do every one of them, and they do it.  We do it from kids on up. Actually with the younger kids, we ask the parents those questions a little bit.  Those things help because they’re not going to be driving, stopping the car, but we screen every single patient with an Epworth.

Matt:

Okay, the next question is a specific ine I guess on billing.  It says, “When billing a Panorex, can you bill medical and dental simultaneously, or is it a one or the other type of deal?”

Dr. Cress:

Well, you know, Matt.  That goes back to the whole thing.  I mean, how much do you really want to chase that?  Seriously, and if you get more reimbursement on the dental side that’s fine.  If you get more reimbursement on the medical side, that’s fine, but that takes a lot of effort and time and staff time and cost.  So, the variance between the two isn’t going to be really that great.  You’re basically stepping over the dollars to pick up the pennies.

So, my recommendation on that is do it on medical.  They’re going to want to see it or they’re going to want to know anyway.  Just send it on one side and be done with it.  I personally wouldn’t cross the two for the variance of money.  Then, definitely don’t double bill.  That’s just not right.

Matt:
Great.  The last question, then, is, “If you are a fee-for-service, do you still have to submit all necessary documents that the insurances are requesting for the patient’s that are out-of-network? What’s your experience with that?”

Dr. Cress:

Yes, absolutely. Here’s the catch:  You ask the patients themselves, “Do you want to see if you have medical coverage for mandibular devices, or do you want to just go ahead and pay for it?” What they’ll do is they’ll go ahead and say, “Yeah, we’ll go ahead and pay for it and see if we got something.”

So, we, again, collect up front, and then, we submit it.  So, we do ask them.  I mean, I have patients that are like, “I don’t care whether you submit or not. I just want the appliance.”  So, if you’re going to do that, we absolutely do, no matter what.  Now, if you don’t have medical coverage, for example, this falls under DME, and if you have the example I gave earlier, if the individual has a deductible on their DME for $5000, what difference does it make?  Go ahead and collect the cash, the $3750.  You give them the paperwork.  They submit to the insurance.  It goes to the deductible.

God forbid they get in some type of accident or something and they need a wheelchair, they’ve met most of their deductible.  So, we do submit no matter what, but we do collect up front for every one of the OSA devices that we do.

Matt:

Excellent.  So, that concludes our question and answer period, Dr. Cress. Thank you so much for your time and your expertise on this matter.

So, if you use these basic simple codes right here, and you have the case fee, whether it’s $2500, $3000, $3500.  Whatever the fee is, if you have your diagnostic information and all the codes associated with your medical billing, you use straight codes here, and you collect up front. Tell the patient you don’t know what the reimbursement is, but, based on the information that you have gathered, they have a percentage back.  Bingo, you’ve collected your total fee.  You submit it.  The checks come back.  They’ll come to you or the patient depending on how it’s in-network or out-of-network.  When they come to you, hand them a reimbursement and be done with it.

Every Thursday afternoon, I usually write anywhere from one to five, six, seven reimbursement checks from the medical side of it, and I’d much rather do that than go through the hassle of continually building each one of the codes.

What’s next?  Filing the paperwork. You’ve got everything from EOBs to electronic filing to status checks for claims to denials and appeals to peer reviews.  I mean it’s exhausting.  Here’s that CMS 1500 if you’re not familiar with.  My software spits that out.

I’m going to run through these really quickly as far as the 1500 because I see we’re getting a little tied up on time, but filling out the form, make sure that you always have the diagnosis codes listed in order of importance. For example, it’s OSA.  Diagnosis of the OSA, that’s going to always provide medical necessity.  Always make sure that you list your CPT codes ranging from the most expensive all the way down.  Make sure you complete all the fields on the forms and make sure you stay inside the lines because they’ll look for any reason to kick you out.

The first 13 boxes is basically patient information; 14 and 15 is when the symptoms occur.  Box 17 is your referring physician, and guess what?  Boxes are going to have sub-boxes so they’re going to want stuff like NPI numbers for your physicians.  For additional notes, CPAP intolerance.  By the way, with the sheet that you get those forms, the directions, you can go online, and they’ll tell you what these boxes are for and what to fill in each one of them.

Box 22 is for Medicaid only.  Box 23 is your pre-authorization number and so forth, dates of service, places of services.  You usually won’t need that one.  You’ll list your CPT codes, your diagnostic codes, charges for each code, list of the units, your NPI number, your TIN number, optional.  If you want to accept your insurance assignment, you say “yes” or “no” there.  Charges for record.  Again, these codes just go on and on and on.  They go in all these boxes.  The total for the claim, that’s really important for you guys to know, and your signature. Then, the last part of it is going to be the location in which your services took place and the name and so forth.

Now, you want answers to all those questions?  Here’s where you get your pen.  Get your sharpener out and get it going.  Here we go. I have a software. I got online with a software company called Nierman Practice Management.  Some of you guys may already have this.  Their update is phenomenal.  It is literally the most customizable software out there.

What’s great about Nierman Practice Management, and that’s the number, 1-800-879-6468.  Rose Nierman owns the company.  She’s phenomenal.  Glenina is great.  The software program is about $4500, and the in-office training is about $1500.  That $1500, to me, outweighs the $4500 that you pay for the software.  Glenina comes in, and she customizes it for you.  She’ll show you a lot of tricks to the trade with regards to filling out the information.

What I love about the Dental Writer is it has a diagnostic and questionnaire reporting exam. Basically what you do is in each one of my computer rooms, I have a flat screen, touch screen computer on the wall, and we pull up the Dental Writer.  Basically, what it is that there’s tabs that you go through.  You click on the tabs, and my assistant reads the part of the exam that I do. I do it with the patient, whether it’s the Epworth or the Mallampati or the tonsils score or this or that, and she just clicks and touches the button and fills in all of it.  When that tab’s completed, she goes to the next tab, and she reads off all the things that I need to do.

Once we go through all the tabs, this software will then go to a diagnostic report.  It automatically writes your SOAP note. It automatically writes your medical necessity, the one that I showed a minute ago.  It automatically writes everything for you. It will also send a “thank you” letter to the referral doctor.  It does everything for you.  It is absolutely the most phenomenal thing I have ever seen.

If there’s components that you don’t one, they can go and delete those for you so you never have to see them again.  If there’s stuff you’re looking for that’s not there, it’s easily customizable.  They’ll show you how to do it yourself, or they’ll do it for you.  It is a great, great way to do it.  It will print out that CMS 1500 form with all those boxes already filled in.  You don’t have to worry about it, and it just fills it in the line so the insurance companies can’t keep track and say, “Sorry, we’re not going to pay for it.” Then, there’s cross coding for medical as well.

I really highly recommended.  I use it.  It’s great.  It’s been a really great work force.  It also keeps track outside of our [46:06], which patients are using OSA and so forth.  Then, the other one is this company out here.  There’s several of them out there.  This is obviously a Texas-based company in San Antonio.  Basically, they don’t get paid unless you get paid.  What they do is they take over the information, and they submit all the claims, make sure everything’s done correctly before they submit it.  Once the reimbursement comes back, you pay them.  For example, if you submit $3000 and you get $2500 back, you owe them $250, but you don’t have to go through all the stuff we went through in order to do some courtesy bill.

Again, dental sleep medicine and craniofacial dentistry has been great for me this past year.  I’ve been happier in dentistry than I ever had in my entire life.  I’ve done more full-mouth rehabilitation cases this year than I ever had in practice in 18 years, looking at people’s airways, opening them up, and getting them back to where they need to be at a better place in life, and I just say enough great things about it.

If you guys have any questions or any comments, we’re going to take a couple of questions, comments, if I’m not mistaken. I’ll be glad to answer them, and here’s my information.  Feel free to call me. I always return phone calls, and I always return e-mails.  They may not be right at that second, but they will usually get done by the end of the day.

Again, thanks Arrowhead for letting me participate in a webinar, and thank you guys for listening to me.  I hope I didn’t carry on too long or talk too fast.  Matt, do we have any questions?

Matt:

Thank you very much, Dr. Cress.  I’ll give you a quick second to catch your breath.  I just want to remind all the attendees that we did go over a lot of information.  This PowerPoint will be available if you want it.  The only thing that we ask and the reason that we ask is we don’t want to be accused of spamming our attendees, but if you’d like that, make sure you fill out the question on the survey where it asks if you’d like it e-mailed to you.  We’ll go ahead and take care of that for you.

With that, we’ll go ahead to some of the questions.  We got a number of questions from your presentation, Dr. Cress, and I’ll just try to go into those now.  The first one is from a doctor.  He asks, “In your opinion, do you feel that OSA is going to become a viable means for a dentist to access the more lucrative medical insurance?”

Dr. Cress:

Oh my gosh.  You have no clue.  I don’t know who the dentist is, but give them my number.  I’ll give them the financial numbers directly.  It has been phenomenal, and I will tell you.  It’s really a great adjunct to help your patients.  Yeah, I mean, we can do bleaching and we can do all kinds of interesting cosmetic things and so forth, but when you start talking about their overall health and putting them in a better overall position in life, from a mood perspective, it’s just incredible.

So, to answer your question, absolutely yes.  It’s alarming to see the number of memberships who have grown in the American Academy of Dental Sleep Medicine and the American Academy of Craniofacial Pain.  It’s just been leaps and bounds.  The answer to the question is absolutely, 100%.

Matt:

Great.  The next question is, this is a doctor asking, “What things do I need to have in place to start offering sleep dentistry, in your opinion?”

Dr. Cress:

Well, again, where I actually generated after the TDA meeting in San Antonio, was I came back that Monday, and I printed out the Epworth.  I got it off the internet. I printed up the Epworth.  I put it in my format, and I started asking every single question.  Those individuals that come back that have 8 or greater, I then started looking from a diagnostic standpoint with regards tyou o their work facades or sore eye, their scalped tongues [49:30] and so forth, keeping in mind that that particular lecture is given at Arrowhead for the sleep component of it.  I encourage everyone to sign up for those and learn how to do that.

Then, you start looking beyond Ts and you start seeing things that are very suggestive of OSA. The next step is obviously a sleep study and/or a home sleep study in order to confirm your initial diagnosis.

Matt:

Okay.  The next question kind of regards your mentioning sleep doctors or sleep MDs.  The question is, “With OSA and sleep dentistry, what is the type of interaction I’m going to be having with MDs?”

Dr. Cress:

Well, here’s the catch.  As everyone knows, it’s very hard for doctors to make money because they have to see so many patients.  So, what you do this doctors going in and out, in and out in order to meet their quotas for the day.

Aetna considers any of the following diagnostic techniques medically necessary for a member with symptoms suggestive of OSA.  How do you get the suggestive component?  From the Epworth.  You need to have attended a full night of PSG.  Well, good luck on that one.  Most people don’t want to go to a sleep lab and spend the night.

You’ve got a couple of different devices that are available.   You have device II, III, and IV.  Those devices actually measure airflow at at least two different channels.  The one I do is this one.  This is the Watch-PAT you saw a minute ago. It is an unattended home sleep device that monitors three channels.  Mine does pulse oximetry, actigraphy, and peripheral arterial tone.  It also has a little snoring device.  It’s a four-channel.  It’s great.  That will fall under that category as well.

Then, if you happen to do a split night where they do a PSG and find out that they are having apnea and they’re already on CPAP, they do a CPAP and a titration as well.  Then, of course, videos of EEGs and so forth.

Aetna’s members that have AHI greater than or equal to 15 events per hour with a minimum of 30 events or AHI is greater than 15 and less than 15 with a minimum of 10 events.  I mean, come one, really, guys, this is a lot of detail, and this is just Aetna’s requirements.  Most insurances are a little bit heavy, but they’re a little bit different.  So, you’ve got to look for those.

For Aetna, excessive daytime sleepiness has to be documented with an Epworth greater than 10 or MultipleSleep Latency.  Now, let me tell you.  On the Epworth, for the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, theirs is 8 or greater.  I actually dropped mine to 7, but look at Aetna.  This insurance is increasing the Epworth to 10 or greater so they’re excluding a lot of patients who have OSA.

Documented symptoms of impaired cognition, mood disorders, or insomnia.  Documented hypertension, and documented ischemic heart disease.  Documented than 20 episodes of stroke.  Greater than 20 episodes of oxygen desaturation during a full night sleep study.

The bottom line is tell the patient you’re evaluating their limitation when it comes to their insurance.  It is their policy.  Therefore, the outcome of reimbursement on the patient is not for you.  Your job is to work within the guidelines, but you want to obtain the most reimbursement.

Again, I’ve stressed this numerous times and you’ll hear it more in the next 20 minutes that we have:  Case fee, courtesy bill. We have gotten everything from our full feedback on the patient all the way down to $68 from the patient, but if they know they’re going in, they’re okay with it.

The financial responsibility.  The patient is ultimately responsible for the cost of their treatment.  For every case, make sure you have a printed and signed financial agreement and insurance estimate because even an approved pre-authorization is never a guarantee of payment.  You guys know that from the dental insurance perspective.

Again, we want to talk about modifiers really quick.  These are the things that belong behind the codes.  For example, NU is for new equipment, 25 is basically a description of it for significant.  For example, if there’s multiple physicians, 59 basically means it tells the company they’ll pay for the next service as well. On the CM1500 codes, you have the boxes that you put in.  For example, the modifier number 11 means that that particular event took place in the office.  The modifier for 12 means it was a take home test.

So, all of this information is overwhelming.  It’s really kind of just beyond belief to try to get it all together, and, again, I’m going to share with you a way to get around that.

Medical coding for oral appliances.  All medical claims require that the ICD-9 code.  You will use the following codes for oral made appliances: ICD-9 code for obstructive sleep apnea is 327.  That’s the actual diagnosis that you need.   Then, you’ve got the HCPCS code for oral appliances that are made.  That’s the code for it for custom fabricated, adjustable appliances.

Then, here’s all the other codes, the ICD codes, that are needed on your claim forms.  You cannot diagnose diabetes, hypertension, or any of that sort of thing.  This is all from the medical side.  So, if you get a referral from a medical doctor, these are the codes you use for your form in order to submit them. The more diagnostic cods that you can list on a medical claim, the better off you’re going to be in order to prove medical necessity, and you always want to list OSA as the first code, always.

So, coding your office visits.  I think this is really a kind of a joke.  We talked about billing for band aid and aspirin and the cup the aspirin is in.  This is kind of how you guys do that.  Basically, you want to know if your patient’s established or new, and there’s categories for each one of these.  For example, if you have a new patient, there’s codes, for example, for how much time you spend with them.  For example, 99201 is for 10, 99202 is for 20 minutes, 99203 for 30 minutes, 99204 for 40 minutes.  The variation in those is basically the fee, how you’re going to charge.  If you charge $25, $50, $75, and $100, it’s basically on how much time, but look at this really quickly.

If you look at 99203 and 99204, it says, “A detailed history, a detailed exam, and low complexity of medical decision-making.”  For 99204, it’s another 15 minutes.  You’re going to bill a little higher fee, you have comprehensive history, comprehensive exam, and a moderate complexity in medical decision-making.  Guess what?  You better prove that when you send that to an insurance company or else you’re going to get denial on that as well.  That same thing is for the 60 minute one as well.

The same thing applies to different patients.  The same codes, but again, it’s 10 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes, and 40 minutes.  The variance in fees and the variance in what you can get through with regards to how you’re presenting for the medical insurance company.  For example, again, comprehensive history and comprehensive exams.

So, what qualifies you to bill as a consultation instead of an office visit?  When you visit with a doctor.  Again, you can bill for that if you want, but you can case fee it.  Do you really want to spend all that time, energy, and effort in order to get a consultation fee?  That’s totally up to you.

Again, face-to-face with the doc, they have different codes for the time limit that you’re spending, up to 80 minutes, but here’s the deal:  If you have a patient that you have to spend 80 minutes with a referring doctor for OSA, you have no business treating that patient.  Those really need to stay in a hospital study or with highly qualified sleep doctors.

Coding diagnostics.  Let’s look at that for just a second.  These are the codes that you use for the different services that you provide, for the different exams, and so forth.  Each code is different, and you just follow what code you use depending on what it is you’re doing, whether it’s a single view, for example, you use a 300 or a 320 on a whole mouth.  You also want to look out for TMJs and orthodontics and so forth.  These are the codes that you use for that.  If you want to do laryngeal function study, that’s the code you use for that, and that’s the code you use for supplies you use.

So, this ICD code thing is just going on and on and on.  It’s really overwhelming, and I’m sure you guys are ready to disconnect and hang up, but hang in there with me for a minute because I’m going to show you a way to get around this.  You’ve got additional codes for additional appliance repair and anything else you need to do.

Again, the Epworth Sleepiness Scale is totally required 100% with regards to any of the issues associated with the patient.  I do Mallampati Scores.  I you guys haven’t done it, it’s really simple. Ask the patient to say, “Ah”.  On the “ah” stick their tongue out, look at the back of their throat.  Figure out which one they are.  Mark down the Mallampati score and submit that with your insurance claim.  Home Sleep Study Test.  We talked about that as well.  The actual diagnostic report that comes out with this, submit that with the report as well.

Then, the fee range.  Talk about that for just a minute.   Look at this chart.  This is what I was talking about with the band aid and aspirin component.   You have a category of new patient, established patient, and consultation.  Under each one of those, you have 10, 20, 30, 45 minutes and so forth divided based upon the insurance or the amount you’re going to charge based on that particular individual.

If you really want to spend the time, energy, and effort to keep track of all of that and find out exactly where you are, knock yourself out.  It’s much easier to do a case fee and be inclusive and have the case fee set and then submit, for example, the 99203 for every new patient, 30 minutes on all of them because you’re going to get at least that information up there.  You’re going to spend at least 20 to 30 minutes with them.  So, just fill it in as a case fee.  It works so much easier.  If you want to break all of that down, more power to you.

Here’s the case fees basically for some of the stuff that we do:  Pharyngometer, rhino, the pano, jaw joint x-ray, and the appliance.  There you go.  These fees are ranges.  Every area is a little different, and you can put it all together.  Let’s put all of this together really quick.

Example billing. We’re going to look at visit, service, codes, modifiers, charge.  This is an initial consultation for an office visit.  There’s your code, your modifier, and your charge.  Here’s a panoramic x-ray, your code, your modifier, and your charge. Photographs of the airway, your code and your charge

Impressions and bite.  Your established patient office visit, your code and your charge.  Cone beam is the same as well. The actual appliance was a DNA appliance or a mandibular appliance plant.  Again, there’s your code, your E0486 and your modifier in NU for new and your fee.  Your fee can vary, whatever it is.  It’s just an example.

Then, you want to deliver.  We’ll tell you this.  Fitting and adjustment is included with that actual fee for the appliance.  So, you can’t double bill for that.  Then, you have your follow-up fees as well.  There you go.  There’s your total.

Then, we have these wonderful things called HCPCS.  Then everything that didn’t fall under Level 1 falls under Level 2, and if we forgot anything, we’re going to put in in the HCPCS Code.  Unfortunately, one of the things that we’re doing, which is the oral appliance, falls under the durable medical equipment, prosthetics, orthotics, and supplies, and that goes up there.  It’s five characters with one alpha in the front.  For example, with the oral appliances, it’s E0486.

Some additional things that you need to know, some of the wonderful modifiers, in addition to the CPT codes.  It shows the insurance companies how these circumstances that may or may not need to be known with regards to the claim.  When the medical claim comes through, you know what they are going to do.  They’re going to reject it, but if you resubmit it from an appeal perspective and you have modifiers there, it gives them, “Hey, look at this.”  For example, there’s unusual circumstances.  There’s multiple physicians.

All you guys know about EOBs, explanation of benefits. I don’t really need to spend much time on that because you do it on the dental side.  Durable medical equipment, again, that’s the where the appliance falls in.  Let’s look at that for a little bit more detail.  Basically, insurance companies define DME as something that can withstand repeated use.  It’s an appliance or anything in that nature than can withstand repeated use.   It is primarily and customarily used to serve a medical purpose.  Generally, it is not useful to a person in the absence of an illness or an injury, and it’s excludes all items that are disposable.

Let me clarify something a little about DME. DME is a subcategory of every single policy.  Let me give you an example.  If your medical deductible is $1000, guess what?  There’s going to be a deductible limit on DME.  So, all these deductible limits are relatively high.  They’re $2000, $3000.  Sometimes, we’ve even seen them as high as $5000, $7000 just in the DME side, forget the medical side.  So, when you get that information, that’s really a green light to collect cash and go forward because that’s going to be net towards your deductible.  Anyway, they’ve got to pay that out of pocket anyway.  So, there you go.  It’s really a win-win situation.

So, DME.  Make sure you look at that net specifically if the patient met the deductibles on the DME and what is their deductible limit on the DME.  Again, we need to provide medical necessity, and very important on how we do that is your documentation.  Every claim that must be backed up by accurate, complete documentation because the patient’s medical record is a legal document.  So, think about it like you’re going to court and you’re trying to prove in order to get the money that you have earned the patient has a medical necessity for an oral appliance.

The SOAP note configuration is what insurance companies love.  Some of you guys have probably done SOAP notes in school, and if you do SOAP notes in your practice, that’s great.  Those are the best format to use for medical documentation, and basically, it’s subjective, objective, assessment, and plan.  So, let’s talk about that real quickly for just a second.

Subjective is basically the chief complaint.  Patient was seen in the office today choking and gasping at night and would like to find out more about an oral appliance.  That’s basically the chief complaint.  Then, you have the objective component.  Symptoms that can be measured, heard, touched, smelled, seen, and also the diagnostic results, weight, height, neck size.

The other thing is the assessment.  Basically, what is the diagnosis?  Possible sleep breathing disorder. Then, the plan.  What is the treatment plan?  You go for PSG.  Do they need to be referred to a GP or a sleep doc? That’s what plan is.  Basically, that’s how a SOAP note is designed.

So, let’s look at the process.  First, you want call and check the patient’s benefits.  Then, create reimbursement estimate for the patient, and again, if we do a case fee, it works really, really well based upon having that limit set out there.  You want to gather records you will need to file the claim.  For example, sleep study reports, medical histories, etc.  Then, you want to submit the pre-authorization for all services if it is required.

Again, Blue Cross Blue Shield, you have no way around it.  So, if you call, for example, Cigna or Aetna, ask them specifically, “Is pre-authorization required?”  They’re not going to tell you that, and you submit, you’ve lost it.  You want to submit a claim for the initial visit, diagnostics, others, and so forth.  You want to submit the actual claim for the oral appliance itself.

You guys have probably heard stories or might have been exposed to it, but when you go to a hospital and they charge for a band aid, they charge for an aspirin, they charge for the cup the aspirin is in, it’s all in your bill and your bill is 30 pages long for a 20-minute stay, the reason they do that is because they know the insurance companies are going to create or discount that quite deeply.

You guys can do that as well, and we’ll show you all the different ways you can add to this in order to build the fee up large enough so that you actually get compensated a fare rate.  Again, we prepackage and do a case fee for one set number, and everything is included in it.  It’s so much easier, but if you want to go down that track and you want to go and submit for every single thing you do in order to get the limit, knock yourself out.  Go for it, and you’ll see how exhausting it is.  Then, you’ll submit the claims for follow-up visits and so forth.

Let’s talk about submitting a claim.  You want to require documents to obtain reimbursement.  You want a copy of the PSH with diagnosis of OSA.  So, the appliance is not going to be covered if the diagnosis is primary snoring.  If you’re going to do primary snoring in your office, go ahead and sit in one of the stabilizing devices or one of those devices that they put in.  Just do an office visit or an office fee for it, and then be done with it.  You’re not going to get any coverage because of snoring.

Then, the CMS 1500 health claim form.  Those can be purchase from the AMA and many office supply stores.  One of the lifelines I’m going to give you, one of the software we use in the office actually generates those forms with all the information already filled out.  It’s really cool.

They need a letter of medical necessity.  This is really a great, great edge to help facilitate reimbursement from insurance companies if you get this form.  PAT screener, for example, or sleep study or anything of that nature.  This, number five, is absolutely the golden rule:  If you get a referral from a sleep doctor or a physician that the patient has CPAP-intolerant and would like oral appliance, have them write out, on a prescription pad, oral appliance and “Rx”.  Submit that with your claim.  The patient has already established a relationship with that ongoing physician, so they’re already going to be knowing that they are seeing Dr. X for sleep apnea.  They’ve already had the CPAP machine, and when that Rx from the doctor, it really helps facilitate that reimbursement.

Then, there are letters to describe symptoms, diagnosis, and appliance and treatment again from the dental sleep professional and a point of contact within the office for both patients and the insurance company.

Again, medical necessity.  I can’t stress how important is a letter of medical necessity.  Let me just show you a little outline letter.  Don’t try to freak out about all this, but this is actually generated from the software that I have.  I’ll share it with you at the end, and it fills out all the patient information and data.  Basically, it says this patient has fitted with a CPAP machine.  The patient is unable to tolerate the CPAP machine, and it goes in and says, “The exhibits the following signs and symptoms and therefore needs and oral appliance.”  This is a letter of medical necessity.

The second one is called the sample affidavit.  Basically the patient is saying, “I have attempted to use CPAP tom manage my sleep-related breathing disorder and find it intolerable to use based on the following reasons.”  They check that.  They sign it.  It’s a valid affidavit.  Those guys are required, as well, to get some reimbursement from them.

If you don’t already do an Epworth Sleepiness Scale screen form for all your patients, I highly encourage it.  I will tell you that all of my patients that I have gotten with the exception of a handful that I have gotten from referrals have been in my office.  How do we do that?  Starting from Monday morning, every patient should get the Epworth Sleepiness Scale.  It should take only take a few seconds to ask these questions and fill it out.  If it is 8 or better, then it is suggestive that they have OSA.  So, you can Google this and you can create your own form or letterhead, but the information is on there.  Anyway, all insurance companies require an Epworth Sleepiness Scale form filled out so you might as well go ahead and do it and be done there.

We have these great little guys.  They’re called Watch-PAT.  They are used for home sleep study.  So, if the Epworth Sleepiness Scale comes back 8 or greater, we talk to the patient about letting us program one of these for them and let them take it home and sleep with them.  Basically, it gives us all the information that we need.  It’s a great screening tool for sleep apnea, and, again, that report we actually submit with the insurance claim.

Now, there’s a catch to it.  That has to be signed by an MD.  Watch-PAT, Itamark manufactured that has actually a staff that will interpret the study for you and sign off on it, or if you have a physician that you are working with from the sleep perspective, they can sign off on that as well.  Keep in mind, MDs diagnose, dentists treat. So, we’re not allowed to diagnose although, I think, in the near future, that’s going to change.

This is absolutely the golden key right here.  If you can get a prescription from the doctor asking for an oral appliance, I can’t tell you how much weight that really carries.

So, insurance wants to know what is clinically significant for OSA.  Let’s talk about that for a second.  AHI is greater than 5 and less than 15 for at least one of the following is met:  Excessive daytime sleepiness documented symptoms of impaired cognition, mood disorders, or insomnia; documented hypertension; documented ischemic heart disease; documented history of stroke; or greater than 20 episodes of oxygen desaturation during a full night sleep study. That’s what they consider clinically significant.

Now, let’s take that one step further, and I’m only using Aetna as an example.  Every single insurance company is different.  I’m sure all of you guys are exhausted already just listening to the information I’ve given you with regards to trying to get reimbursement for medical insurances.  That’s why I feel it’s very important to do case fee and courtesy bill for the patients.

Let’s look at Medicare for just a quick, few minutes.  I want to run through this a little bit.  Some of you guys may have already been a little exposed to Medicare just from personal experience or a family member, but Medicare has several parts, Parts A, B, C, D.  A is for hospital.  B is for the supplementary insurance.  C is for Medicare Advantage, and D is for prescriptions.

The Medicare DME handles the durable medical equipment.  So, when we talk about oral appliances and you’re looking at medical reimbursement, you’re looking at DME, durable medical equipment.  You will need to contract with Medicare Part B and Medicare DME for your jurisdiction, which is the area which you’re located, in order to file for the reimbursement, and we’ll talk about how that’s broken down.

In Part B and Medicare, your jurisdiction, depending on which one it is, wherever you are.  For example, if you’re in Florida, you’re Jurisdiction 9.  What’s interesting about Medicare is when Medicare uses the insurance industry standards.  For example, if Medicare in Florida says, “We’re only going to reimburse you the implants at $1000,” almost all insurance companies follow suit for example, but if you’re in California, let’s say, that reimbursement level may be $1500.

So, that’s why they categorize you and put you in jurisdictions based upon where your overall demographics are and what’s basically financially acceptable.  So, if a procedure is done in Florida for a certain fee, that same code will be done different in California because of the jurisdictions.

Durable Medical Equipment here.  Again, the same thing.  They have jurisdictions based upon A, B, C, and D.  Depending what state you are depends on what jurisdiction you fall under.  So, what I say is just say “No” to Medicare.  If per chance, you do want to do it, you need to go ahead and contact them and get their rules and regulations and follow along. If you decide not to, you have to opt out of Medicare.

Now, that website down there is very important.  You don’t need to write that down because I’ll give it to you later, but if you’re going to opt out of Medicare you need to let them know.  If you don’t wish to participate, you need to opt out every two years.  If you do not opt out of Medicare, then you’re in, and you have to accept Medicare patients.  So, we opted out early on, and we just follow that two year rule when it comes up for us to opt out again we’ll do that as well.  If you want to accept Medicare, that’s fine. Go ahead and go to that website.  Get typed into their provider relations services, and they’ll get you set up in a way you can go.

Let’s talk about in-network and out-of-network benefits.  You guys are probably used to that as well because in dentistry you kind of deal with that.  In-network, patient pays deductible and co-pays.  Insurance benefits paid to the provider, and they provide a fee schedule for you.  If you’re out-of-network, patients pay deductibles and co-pays.  Insurance benefits pays for the patient, and there is no provided fee schedule at all.

So, if you’re in-network, you will have a pre-negotiated fee schedule for the services.  If you’re out-of-network, you can do whatever you want, and guess what?  We’ve elected to do the case fee and the courtesy bill so we’re out-of-network.  We’re in control of our fees and what we want to do with regards to that.

So, you’re either in or you’re out.   So, all providers have the choice of participating, contracting with an insurance company.  You’re not really forced to.  Let me just give you a heads up.  For example, if you are a Cigna provider for the dental side, that does not make you a provider for the medical side.  So, when you call a patient and the patient of yours is a Cigna patient from the dental perspective or the dental side and they come to you with Cigna insurance, do not make that assumption that you fall under that category.

When you call to verify the benefits do not make that assumption because you will get bitted in the tail end with regards to that.  They’ll tell you, “You’re on dental?  That means you’re already on medical.”   You’ll think, “Okay.”  You’ll hang up the phone, submit it.  Guess what?  You’ll get no reimbursement because you’re not on the medical side even though you may be on the dental side.  If you’re not participating with an insurance company, you are not required to file a claim.  It is the patient’s responsibility, and that’s really a nice little thing to go with.

Some in-network advantages.  The insurance companies will distribute a booklet to their customers listing all providers.  This is a cool concept if you want to think of it from a logistic and financial perspective.  They’re basically doing some marketing for you through the network.  Many patients will choose to stay in-network knowing it will most likely mean less out of pocket money, but it’s also less expensive.  Let me give you an example.

Let’s say you paid $1000 for the appliance, and if you’re negotiated fee is only $800.  Look at it this way, the other $200 that you’re not getting for being in-network is really going towards marketing because all you guys know you will pick up the phone and ask, “How did you hear about us?”  “Through my insurance.”  So, think about that for a little bit.  Don’t get turned off by being in-network, but take the discrepancy number there and apply that to marketing in your mind.  You may need to pay just a little bit.

Payment is made directly to you instead of the patient, and some insurance companies do now allow payments to providers who are not in-network.  So, the patient is responsible for everything, and that can be kind of cool.  It also speeds up claims.

Then, some disadvantages.  By becoming in-network, you’re accepting the rules and guidelines of the insurance company.  Now, on the medical side, if you think the dental side is bad as far as rules and regulations, we’re going to go to an example a little bit, and you’ll see how diligent they are in all the hoops and all the agility that you have to go through in order to jump through the hoops and jump through the rails in order to get reimbursed.  It’s pretty significant.

If you don’t follow the rule and guidelines, guess what, guys?  No money.  You can’t charge a patient.  Your pre-negotiated fee schedule means it will be probably less than what you normally charge, but then, again, take the variance in the fee to go towards what we call your marketing department.  All providers have the choice of participating in contract with insurance companies or not, and if you’re not participating in an insurance company, you’re not required to file a claim.  Again, that’s really nice as well.

Again, contracting with insurance companies means you’re getting in bed with the devil.  Let’s talk about that.  Let’s see how we do that.  First of all, you’ve got to gather all of your information, your credentials, your licensing, and everything that you can possibly do in order to submit applications with regards to trying to become a provider.

Step two, you call the company.  Most insurance companies have a specific application process that they’ll send you or e-mail you or tell you to go online.  Some of them often have contact people, liaisons, within their company that help through the process and make it a lot easier.

Step three, check back.  As soon as you have sent something, that doesn’t usually mean they’ll get it in.  You all know how that goes.  That game is played on the dental side.  So, it’s the same thing on the medical side.  They really want you to provide.  They usually give it about a month then check back and see how they’re doing.

Here’s the problem that we have found snooping around, wanting to become providers on the medical side:  Dentists have a little bit more difficult time contracting with insurance companies.  They’ll be limited to in-network participation for oral surgeons and physicians, but for dentists, they’re not really too excited about that.  For most insurance companies, the process takes anywhere from three to six months depending on how hungry insurance companies are to get you on the provider list.

We talked a little bout hoops and agility and jumping the hoops.  Here’s a neat little thing.  When you call for verification, of benefits, you need to find out if they have a gap exclusion exception.  You’re wondering, “What the heck is that?”  Here we go.  It basically means that your patients will receive their in-network benefits even though you are an out-of-network provider.  Now, here’s how that plays out.

There’s two ways to do that.  One is that there’s no providers near the patient, usually 20 to 30 miles, who are in-network who can provide the services or if a physician who’s in the in-network with the patient’s insurance refers directly to you for treatment.  Let me give you an example.

You’re going to provide a service to a patient who as Aetna, and they give you “yes,” and everything is good.  If you don’t ask for the gap exclusion in your provider’s service, they come out and say, “Guess what?  Dr. Smith, the oral surgeon across the street from you in in our provider list.”  You’re not going to get reimbursed. Even though Dr. Smith may not be doing oral appliances for sleep, you’re not going to get reimbursed.  You need to ask specifically if there’s a gap exclusion or exception, and if you’re not, you’re good to go.  If there is, you need to find out who the next closest person is, and the insurance companies will give that to you.  You need to discuss that with your patient so that they don’t get burned either as well.

It is best to request this prior to treatment or pre-authorization when you are checking.  Once you’ve determined that the oral appliance is a covered benefit, then pre-authorization is usually required.  Let me just give you a heads up.  On Blue Cross Blue Shield, if you do not get a pre-authorization from Blue Cross Blue Shield, you will not get a penny.  It doesn’t matter if they have a $100,000 coverage for oral appliances.  You won’t see a dime of it.  You have to get pre-authorization.

So, some insurance companies are very picky about that.  We know, for a fact, that early on, like the second or third oral appliance we did with Blue Cross Blue Shield, and the patient got burned.  He was very nice about it, and he paid up front.  He just wasn’t going to get any type or reimbursement.  So, be careful about that.

If they do, and if they don’t have a provider who is in-network for oral appliances, the company will honor the patient’s in-network benefits.  If the patient is eligible for the gap exclusion, make sure you write that reference number down so that when you put it on the CMS form that you said a gap exclusion is there.  So, they won’t come back and say, “Sorry, we didn’t say,” or “You didn’t ask,” because you have it in writing.  You have the extra credit.

Let’s talk about terms that we need to know.  What’s wonderful about medical insurance is we have a whole set of nomenclature, new codes to learn.  The ICD-9 Code are International Classification of Diseases Diagnostic Codes.  So, for example, the diagnostic code for OSA is 327.23.  Now, don’t write that down because you can get these online.  You can get it from a book. You can get is just from a presentation.  Don’t burn your lead out doing it.

The other one is the CPT Code.  Those are Current Procedural Codes.  I love it because they have two levels.  Level 1 is basically a 5-digit numerical code.  If you’re doing pulse oximetry it’s 94762, and guess what?  There’s always going to be a modifier at the back of it.  In other words, there’s going to be an additional digit or letter, and that basically clarifies the description, whether it was done in the office or whether it was done at home.