CHAMPS' Megan Coriell Discusses How Survivorship Care Plans + Coding = Reimbursement
Cleveland, Ohio (PRWEB) October 22, 2014 -- In CHAMPS Oncology's recent blog post, Survivorship Care Plans + Coding = Reimbursement, Megan Coriell shares her thoughts on the topic.
In 2012, the Commission on Cancer (CoC) released their new Cancer Program Standards: Ensuring Patient-Centered Care. As part of the new standards the CoC requires accredited cancer programs to prepare survivorship care plans (SCP) for all cancer patients at the completion of treatment with an implementation deadline of 2015. However, according to a study in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, fewer than five percent of oncologists are actually providing survivorship care plans to their cancer patients.
The most significant barriers to providing survivorship care plans are lack of time and inadequate reimbursement for clinical services. Although reimbursement is not currently available for creating SCPs, many providers have found other means of reimbursement for delivering survivorship care.
These codes may be helpful when seeking reimbursement for survivorship care plans:
- Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System (HCPCS) codes S0353 and S0354 are not accepted by Medicare, but are generally accepted by private payers.
- New Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) Care Coordination codes 99495 and 99469 are covered by Medicare and may be appropriate options for billing a survivorship visit.
- Other potential HCPCS and CPT codes related to survivorship care were published in the May-June 2013 edition of Oncology Issues.
Coriell closes her blog by asking readers if they have been granted reimbursement for their survivorship care plan efforts and encourages them to share their experience.
Learn how CHAMPS can be your partner in meeting Commission on Cancer standards.
To learn more about the CHAMPS Oncology Outlook blog, visit http://www.oncologyoutlook.com.
In this transforming healthcare environment of patient-centered care, CHAMPS Oncology – like cancer program administrators, clinicians, industry leaders – understands the importance of quality cancer information for administrative planning, clinical outcomes, and performance measures to improve quality of cancer care. CHAMPS Oncology’s team of cancer information specialists and multi-credentialed certified tumor registrars (CTRs) strategically partners with cancer programs nationwide, offering customized strategies and solutions that best complement the respected cancer programs they are privileged to assist. CHAMPS Oncology specializes in cancer information management, cancer program consulting, informatics, data quality and education, and quality initiatives. For more about CHAMPS Oncology, please contact Toni Hare, RHIT, CTR, Commission on Cancer-trained consultant and vice president, at 216.255.3716 or by email.
Julie Cox, CHAMPS Patient Experience, http://champshealthcare.com/patientexperience.aspx, +1 216.255.3611, [email protected]
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