When it comes to medical billing, oxygen billing is big business and quite complicated, what with all the calculations and computations that have to be made in regard to oxygen content. These days, a biller has to have a degree in advanced calculus to figure out how to bill these claims. The use of electronic media makes things a little easier, but billers still have to know what they're doing. In this installment of our series on medical billing, we'll be covering the GX0 record, or CMN, picking up with field number 8.

GX0 field 8, position 28, is the type of equipment 2. In some cases, a patient will receive more than one type of equipment for receiving oxygen. There can be a number of reasons for this such as needing something for an alternate location to just having a spare in case the main piece of equipment breaks down. The valid responses for this field are A for concentrator, B for liquid stationary, C for gaseous stationary, D for liquid portable, E for gaseous portable and O for other. This second piece of equipment must be prescribed by the ordering physician.

GX0 field 9, positions 29 - 92, is the reason for equipment field. This field tells the carrier the medical reason that the ordering physician prescribed the equipment for the patient. Because there are only 64 characters for this field, the explanation must be concise and accurate and in medical terms. Billers usually get this information from the doctor's prescription.

GX0 fields 10 and 11, positions 93 - 108, are the oxygen prescribed from and to dates. These fields tell the carrier approximately for how long the patient is to be on oxygen. The format of the date fields can either be yyyymmdd or mmddyyyy, depending on the requirements of the carrier. Please check your manual to see which format your carrier uses.

GX0 field 12, positions 109 - 116, is the date oxygen prescribed field. This field really puzzles billers because of field 10, which is also an oxygen prescribed field. The difference here is that this is not the date the patient is to be on the oxygen. This is the actual date the doctor ordered oxygen to be given to the patient. The dates can be the same, but they don't have to. Also, if this is a renewal, the doctor signed date for the renewal goes in this field. This date, as the above dates, can also be transmitted either as yyyymmdd or mmddyyyy, depending on the carrier requirements.

GX0 field 13, positions 117 - 124, is the date patient evaluated field. This field tells the carrier the date that the doctor decided that the patient needed oxygen. In most cases, this is the same date that the oxygen was prescribed, unless it is a renewal. This field can also be transmitted as yyyymmdd or mmddyyyy, depending on the carrier requirements.

In our next installment on medical billing, we'll continue with our review of the GX0 record, picking up with field number 14.

Michael Russell Your Independent guide to Medical Billing

Source: www.articlecity.com