Medical Billing and Coding in Geriatrics: Peter Hollmann, Ken Koncilja, and Audrey Chun

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GeriPal - A Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine Podcast 43 min 2 speakers 5 chapters transcribed 10 hours ago
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What is the purpose of this GeriPal episode and who are the expert guests?

Eric Widera 0:00
Welcome to the Jerry Pal podcast. This is Eric Guadera. This is Alex Smith. And Alex, we are going to do part two of billing. So in September, we had the billing boys on, Chris Jones and Phil Rogers, talked about medical billing and coding. A lot focused on palliative care. Today, we're going to do part two, but instead focus a little less on palliative care, more on like what's different in geriatrics. Who do we have with us today to help us through this?
Alex Smith 0:32
We are honored to welcome Peter Holman, who is a geriatrician and chief medical officer at Brown Medicine and member of the RVS Update Committee, commonly known as the RUC. Peter, welcome to Jerry Pal. And we're delighted to welcome Ken Concilia, who is a geriatrician at the Cleveland Clinic and graduate of UCSF's Geriatrics Fellowship. Ken, welcome to the GeriPal podcast. Thank you for having me. And we're delighted to welcome back Audrey Chun, who is a geriatrician and vice chair of outpatient care in the Brookdale Department of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Audrey, welcome back to the GeriPal podcast.
Audrey Chun 1:11
Thanks for having me. I'm excited to be here.
Eric Widera 1:14
So we got a lot to talk about billing. A little hard subject to do on a podcast, but we're going to try again. Part two of it. Before we do, we all start off with a song request. Audrey, I think you have a song request for Alex.
Audrey Chun 1:25
I do. It's Money, Money, Money by ABBA.
Eric Widera 1:29
money my okay audrey uh probably it's probably not that deep but i'm just gonna ask why did you choose this song i
Audrey Chun 1:37
mean the topic is billing and why do we bill so we can get paid so it seemed
Eric Widera 1:41
an
Audrey Chun 1:41
apt song
Eric Widera 1:44
okay alex here we go
Unknown 1:46
i work all night i work all day to pay the bills i have to pay ain't it sad And still there never seems to be a single penny left for me. That's too bad. And in my dreams I have a plan. If I got me a wealthy man, I wouldn't have to work at all. I'd fool around, I'd have a ball. Money, money, money must be funny in a rich man's world. Money, money, money, always sunny in a rich man's world. All the things I could do if I had a little money. It's a rich man's world.
Eric Widera 2:40
That was fun.
Alex Smith 2:42
Fun song. Thank you, Audrey. Boy, yeah, it's increasingly a rich man's world. Trump, Musk, so many others now. Yeah.
Eric Widera 2:52
All right, Ken, I got a question for you. So Alex said you did fellowship with us. How much of your fellowship was dedicated towards learning the business aspects, billing, coding, all of that stuff?
Ken Koncilja 3:08
Well, I spent two weeks with Alex on inpatient palliative at the VA. And you did
Olivia Maher 3:15
teach me
Ken Koncilja 3:15
about emojis. I told you something, see. I
Audrey Chun 3:22
learned
Olivia Maher 3:22
more about
Audrey Chun 3:23
emojis. Shouldn't have asked the question, Eric.
Peter Hollmann 3:25
Critical stuff here. Can
Olivia Maher 3:28
we bill on emojis,
Peter Hollmann 3:30
Peter? Of course you can. I mean, it's the emoji modifier. They pay you a lot more if you put a big happy face on it. You
Eric Widera 3:36
have to teach me which code that is. Yeah. Ken, but I'm guessing, because I know your fellowship director really well, that there wasn't probably a lot on billing and coding.
Ken Koncilja 3:48
No,
Eric Widera 3:48
not
Ken Koncilja 3:49
a terrible amount. Not a terrible amount. Do you think there should have been? Yes. Yes. What I did learn a lot of was complexity and multidisciplinary care for older adults. And I think the patients that we see in geriatrics clinic in both primary care and consultative practices are super complex. And I think proper care Coding and documentation helps us to capture or sell what we actually are doing to get recognized for what we're actually doing.
Eric Widera 4:24
But what if we just want to complain that we don't get paid enough? Is that good enough, Audrey?
Audrey Chun 4:30
Yeah, exactly. Complaining always works. No, I always emphasize to our providers as well, as well as to our trainees that we're working really hard and we have complicated patients and we should get credit for all the work that we're doing. Like we should not undervalue the work that we are providing, the care that we are providing. And I think it's also important to know that that payment actually pays for the interdisciplinary team, the multidisciplinary team that we work with. They are not billing providers. So no income coming in means that there's not support for them.

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