2022 Billing/Coding Q&A

Angie Cooper, CGS Administrators, LLC; Belinda Postol, RN; Alex Vaughan, DDS, MS; Cindy White, Noridian Healthcare Solutions LLC; Janet Hunter, Novitas Solutions, Inc.

Overview

Dental sleep medicine practitioners often experience challenges when submitting oral appliance therapy for medical insurance reimbursement. In this recorded lecture, knowledgeable clinicians and Medicare experts share their recommendations for establishing effective billing practices with time devoted to attendee questions.

Objectives

At the conclusion of this lecture, participants will be able to:

Better explain foundational principles of medical billing;
Consider effective models of medical billing management; and
Identify appropriate codes and support documentation for oral appliance therapy

Speaker Bios

Angie Cooper brings over 30 years of Medicare expertise to the Provider Outreach and Education team. She has worked on CERT error reduction and education for DMEPOS suppliers and physicians/practitioners. Angie is committed to helping providers with the challenges of understanding documentation and policy requirements and navigating the Medicare audit process. Her ultimate goal as an educator is to provide instruction that will result in Medicare provider compliance at the time of initial claim submission.

Belinda Postol, RN has been actively involved with her husband's dental practice from its inception in 1995. As the business manager, she is involved with all aspects of the practice. Since 2007, she has been intricately involved with dental sleep medicine, developing protocols and strategies for insurance, communication with sleep physicians, and consultations with patients. She has trained with dental sleep physicians around the country and brings both a thorough knowledge of obstructive sleep apnea and understanding of the medical arena. She has spoken across the country with the AADSM and university-based programs. In addition to working at the dental practice, Belinda had worked at SSM Health Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital on a part-time basis until her retirement in June 2019 after 31 years. She continues to expand her knowledge in the areas of sleep and medical insurance.

Alex Vaughan, DDS, MS is a board-certified orofacial pain specialist and co-founder of Virginia Total Sleep in Richmond Virginia. Having started his dental career in the front office, he was “insurance minded” from the beginning. Seeing the urgent need for dental sleep medicine and orofacial pain services, he co-founded his practice with Dr. Michael Pagano on the foundation of medical billing and cutting-edge technology. By combining electronic medical records and his billing expertise, Virginia Total Sleep has reduced patient costs by 90% all while maximizing revenue and case acceptance rate.

Cindy White holds the position of Education Consultant for the outreach and education teams providing guidance to both the jurisdiction A and jurisdiction D DME MAC contracts currently held by Noridian Healthcare Solutions. As an education consultant, she is responsible for offering support to the supplier community as well as creating and presenting training courses involving detailed billing, coding, and coverage requirements for Medicare fee-for-service. Cindy has also had the opportunity to present during many collaborative events with the provider community referring patients to DMEPOS suppliers to assist in their understanding of Medicare DMEPOS requirements.
Cindy has been involved in the DMEPOS community for over 25 years. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communication Studies with a minor in Business Administration. Cindy has extensive experience in training related to DMEPOS coverage criteria and reimbursement.

Janet Hunter has more than 35 years of Medicare experience. She began processing claims and progressed to customer service, correspndence, quality, internal training and management. She led several projects including corrdinating ISO certification and workload transitions. Janet has developed both internal and external educational processing system. She has presented at several large national Medicare Advantage Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) sponsored seminars.
Ms Hunter has been with Novitas Solutions for 9 years serving providers as an Education Specialist which includes Provider Outreach and Education Activities.

Conflict of Interest Disclosure

Ms. Cooper has no potential conflicts of interest to disclose.
Ms. Postol has no potential conflicts of interest to disclose.
Dr. Vaughan has no potential conflicts of interest to disclose.
Ms. White has no potential conflicts of interest to disclose.
Ms. Hunter has no potential conflicts of interest to disclose.

Additional Information

Content for this lecture was last reviewed and approved by the AADSM Director of Education on February 10, 2022. She does not have any relevant financial interest/other relationships to disclose.

Duration: 2 hours
Original release date: February 10, 2022
Expiration date: None

This educational offering was funded exclusively by the AADSM.

For questions regarding the content of this program or for technical assistance, contact the AADSM at info@aadsm.org or 630-686-9875.

Continuing Education

The American Academy of Dental Sleep Medicine is an ADA CERP Recognized Provider. ADA CERP is a service of the American Dental Association to assist dental professionals in identifying quality providers of continuing dental education. ADA CERP does not approve or endorse individual courses or instructors, nor does it imply acceptance of credit hours by boards of dentistry. Concerns or complaints about a CE provider may be directed to the provider or to ADA CERP at www.ADA.org/cerp. The American Academy of Dental Sleep Medicine designates this activity for 2.0 continuing education credit(s).

Summary


Availability:	On-Demand


Cost:	Member: $0.00 Non-Member: $75.00


Credit Offered:	2 CE Credits