Advanced Specialty Coding Virtual Summit: Anesthesia

November 18-20, 2024

Get the Latest Guidance for Accurate Anesthesia Coding, Billing & Compliance 

The 2024 Anesthesia Virtual Summit is the can’t-miss event of the year for Anesthesia coders  Prepare your anesthesia group for 2025 with the billing, coding, and compliance guidance you’ll need in the coming year. Here’s what we have in store for you in 2024:

• Get a 2025 coding & regulatory update on the changes that will impact your group.
• Receive an update on the 6 new codes for plane blocks that will go into effect Jan. 1, 2025.
• Learn the latest rules for interventional pain management and avoid denials.
• Work through the challenges of reporting anesthesia services for common interventional radiology procedures.
• Get updated on the latest American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) practice statements, so you can incorporate them into your practice.
• Work through the proper coding of anesthesia for joint procedures, complex cardiac services and more.
• Learn how medical direction requirements change based on who performs medical direction and who is being medically directed.
• Expert advice: Get answers to your pressing coding, billing, and compliance questions during the Q&A sessions each day.
• Get your entire team trained without sacrificing productivity and without spending thousands of dollars.
• Reduced expenses. No travel time and no travel costs – participate from the comfort of your own happy place!
• Great networking opportunities and more engaging sessions – ask questions, get clarification and be part of the conversation.
• Extra! Add-on a specialty – Pain Management, Orthopedics, and/or Billing & Compliance – and attend sessions from multiple tracks spanned over time.

At DecisionHealth, we are committed to delivering you the highest standard of training excellence, provided by nationally recognized industry experts, in an interactive virtual environment that promises more value and flexibility at an extremely affordable price.

Advanced Specialty Coding Virtual Summit: Anesthesia

Agenda

*All times are Eastern.

Day 1 — Monday, November 18, 2024

11:55 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Introductory Remarks
Moderator

12:00 p.m. – 12:45 p.m.
Plane Blocks: Take Flight With 6 New Fascial Plane Block Codes in 2025
Doris Branker, CHC, CPC, CIRCC, CPMA, CPC-I, CANPC, CEMC
Get ready: 6 new codes for plane blocks will go into effect Jan. 1, 2025. The CPT editorial panel approved the codes for thoracic and lower extremity plane blocks for release in the 2025 CPT Manual. Details about the codes won’t be available until later this year and you won’t have much time to learn about them. This session will help you prepare to code these new services with confidence and give your group an advantage over groups that don’t know these services are an option.

Bonus: Review the guidelines for existing codes such as transversus abdominis plane (TAP) and paravertebral (PVB) blocks.

12:55 p.m. – 1:40 p.m.
Anesthesia With Interventional Pain Management: Learn the Latest Rules, Avoid Denials
Amy Turner, RN, BSN, MMHC, CPC, CHC, CHIAP
Medicare and private payers continue to limit coverage of anesthesia services with interventional pain procedures. Learn how to avoid denials for your anesthesia services by getting updated on the current sedation guidelines, including your MAC’s latest guidelines for anesthesia with facet joint interventions. Also get tips on determining whether the service’s documentation paints a clear picture of medical necessity.

1:40 p.m. – 1:55 p.m.
BREAK

1:55 p.m. – 2:40 p.m.
Anesthesia In the I.R. Suite: Report Interventional Radiologist Services with Confidence
Doris Branker, CHC, CPC, CIRCC, CPMA, CPC-I, CANPC, CEMC
Back by popular demand: Work through the challenges of reporting anesthesia services for common interventional radiology procedures and learn to select the correct code. As the complexity of services performed in the interventional radiology suite has increased, so has the need for an anesthesia provider. Make sure your coding, billing and reimbursement are accurate every time the anesthesiologist steps into the I.R. suite.

2:50 p.m. – 3:20 p.m.
Live Q&A with the Speakers
Doris Branker, CHC, CPC, CIRCC, CPMA, CPC-I, CANPC, CEMC
Amy Turner, RN, BSN, MMHC, CPC, CHC, CHIAP
Bring your questions to this live Q&A session. BONUS: Have a tough scenario or complicated question you’ve been struggling with, submit your scenario and/or question ahead of time. Submit to Julia Kyles at Julia.Kyles@decisionhealth.com by October. 11, 2024.

Day 2 — Tuesday, November 19, 2024

11:55 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Introductory remarks
Moderator

12:00 p.m. – 12:45 p.m.
Incorporate the ASA's Practice Statements Into Your Practice
Kelly Dennis, MBA, ACS-AN, CANPC, CHCA, CPMA, CPC, CPC-I
Take note of the latest American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) practice statements that impact the way you report anesthesia services, and make sure you incorporate them into your practice. For 2024 the ASA issued six new or revised statements on a variety of topics, including documentation of anesthesia care and the anesthesia care team. After this session you’ll be able to update your coding and compliance policies to follow current ASA guidelines and make sure your payers follow them too.

12:55 p.m. – 1:40 p.m.
Accurately Report Anesthesia for Joint Procedures
Pamela Linton, CPC, CANPC
Make quick work of coding anesthesia for procedures that involve the joints. Before you can code a joint procedure, you need to know the answer to several questions. Did the surgeon replace a joint or revise a joint replacement? Was the joint procedure open, closed, or arthroscopic? Diagnostic or surgical? And when does it matter? At the end of this session, you’ll never feel out of joint when it is time to report anesthesia for joint procedures.

1:40 p.m. – 1:55 p.m.
BREAK

1:55 p.m. – 2:40 p.m.
Quality Reporting: Turn Your Anesthesia Providers into MVPs
Kelly Dennis, MBA, ACS-AN, CANPC, CHCA, CPMA, CPC, CPC-I
Are your anesthesia providers taking part in the latest Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) option? CMS rolled out the MIPS Value Pathway for anesthesiology and a few other specialties in 2023. If you haven’t been happy with traditional registry reporting – or your providers refuse to participate despite the increasing penalties – the MVP might be right for your practice. This session will walk you through this new program and give you information you can present to your providers so they can decide whether they want to be MVPs.

2:50 p.m. – 3:20 p.m.
Live Q&A with the Speakers
Kelly Dennis, MBA, ACS-AN, CANPC, CHCA, CPMA, CPC, CPC-I
Pamela Linton, CPC, CANPC
Bring your questions to this live Q&A session. BONUS: Have a tough scenario or complicated question you’ve been struggling with, submit your scenario and/or question ahead of time. Submit to Julia Kyles at Julia.Kyles@decisionhealth.com by October. 11, 2024.

Day 3 — Wednesday, November 20, 2024

11:55 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Introductory Remarks
Moderator

12:00 p.m. – 12:45 p.m.
Be Still My Heart: Report Anesthesia for Complex Cardiac Services
Marcy Garuccio, ACS-AN, CANPC, CPMA, CPC, SME, AAPC Fellow
Laura McNeill, M.D.
Don’t let the prospect of a complex cardiac case make your heart race. During this session a coder/physician duo will show you how to handle cases that start as one procedure and convert into another. For example, how to code when a femoral access on a transcatheter aortic valve replacement turns into an open chest case. The speakers will also review services such as transesophageal echocardiograms, left ventricular assist devices and cardiac care for pediatric patients.

12:55 p.m. – 1:40 p.m.
An Anesthesiologist, a CRNA And a Resident Walk Into A Surgery Department…
Kristen Johnson, CHC, CPC, CHIAP, CRCR
Take the urgency out of concurrency. At the end of this session, you’ll know how medical direction requirements change based on who performs medical direction and who is being medically directed. You will be able to bill medical direction cases accurately and quickly no matter what type of care team combinations come your way. Also get clarity on how relief and being immediately available can make or break medical direction, and what to do when medical direction becomes supervision.

1:40 p.m. – 1:55 p.m.
BREAK

1:55 p.m. – 2:40 p.m.
2025 Update: Prepare for Changes That Will Impact Your Group 
Julia Kyles, CPC
Every year providers lose revenue and create new compliance risks because they don’t know about coding and regulatory changes until after the changes go into effect. Don’t let that happen to your anesthesia group. Attend this session to find out what’s in store for 2025. In addition to the latest information on Medicare’s new rules that will impact your practice, you’ll get a preview of new procedure codes that will be eligible for payment, including temporary codes that will make the leap to permanent code status next year.

2:50 p.m. – 3:20 p.m.
Live Q&A with the Speakers
Marcy Garuccio, ACS-AN, CANPC, CPMA, CPC, SME, AAPC Fellow
Laura McNeill, M.D., Kristin Taylor
Julia Kyles, CPC
Bring your questions to this live Q&A session. BONUS: Have a tough scenario or complicated question you’ve been struggling with, submit your scenario and/or question ahead of time. Submit to Julia Kyles at Julia.Kyles@decisionhealth.com by October. 11, 2024.

— Agenda subject to change —

Advanced Specialty Coding Virtual Summit: Anesthesia

Speakers

	Doris V. Branker, CHC, CPC, CIRCC, CPMA, CPC-I, CANPC, CEMC, is principal consultant of DB Healthcare Consulting & Education. She is a multispecialty coding, reimbursement, practice management, and compliance consultant with specialty areas including evaluation and management, anesthesia, pain management, critical care medicine, interventional radiology, and cardiology. She is a consultant for the American Society of Anesthesiology (ASA) and shares free educational content in her specialty areas on her YouTube page “Doris The Coder.”
	Kelly Dennis, MBA, ACS-AN, CANPC, CHCA, CPMA, CPC, CPC-I, has over 40 years of experience in anesthesia coding and billing and has been speaking about anesthesia issues nationally since 2002. She has a master’s degree in business administration, is a certified auditor, coder and instructor through the American Academy of Professional Coders. Kelly is an Advanced Coding Specialist through the Board of Medical Specialty Coding and served as lead advisor for their anesthesia board. Kelly also serves as a practice management and reimbursement consultant for the American Society of Anesthesiologists. She is a certified health care auditor and has owned her own company, specializing in anesthesia consulting, Perfect Office Solutions, Inc., since November 2001.
	Marcy Garuccio, ACS-AN, CANPC, CPMA, CPC, SME, AAPC Fellow, is a senior consultant at, RMA. Garuccio has a career that spans more than 30 years. She was the president of Health Care Billing Associates for 20 years. The organization began as a medical billing service for anesthesia practices and grew to include other physician and surgical specialties. Garuccio is currently a senior consultant for RMA, a billing agency that offers consultation, coding, auditing, documentation compliance and revenue cycle review and recommendations for anesthesia and pain management services. She has conducted webinars and live presentations for DecisionHealth, recently authored a course offered by Libman Education titled “Essentials of Anesthesiology Coding and Billing” and presents for various AAPC meetings.
	Julia Kyles, CPC, is a content specialist at DecisionHealth. Since joining the DecisionHealth editorial team in 2000, she has written a wide range of articles and books including the Anesthesia & Pain Coder’s Pink Sheet and Pain Management Coding Answers. She also develops the agendas for the annual anesthesia and pain management conferences. To improve her coding knowledge and better understand her readers, Kyles joined the AAPC and received her CPC certification in 2015.
	Pamela Linton, CPC, CANPC, is the corporate coding manager for the anesthesia and pain management division in the compliance department of Zotec Partners, a national revenue cycle management company. She has been in the coding profession since 1980 and has worked exclusively in anesthesia and pain management for the past 23 years. Much of Linton’s work is centered on training. She gives new clients feedback on how they can improve their documentation, creates education materials for coders and physicians, provides in-person training to physicians, and responds to questions from coders, managers, and providers on a daily basis.
	Laura McNeill, M.D., has been a private practice anesthesiologist for more than 20 years and currently works on the cardiac anesthesia team at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh. Before embarking on a clinical career, she worked as a medical research technician at the University of Pittsburgh and Chicago Children’s Hospital. She attended medical school at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical Center in Chicago and served her rotating internship at MacNeal Hospital in Berwyn, Illinois. Following her anesthesia residency at the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Chicago Hospitals, Dr. McNeill studied cardiothoracic anesthesia for six months at Allegheny General Hospital.
	Kristen Taylor, CHC, CPC, CHIAP, CRCR, is an associate partner, at Pinnacle Enterprise Risk Consulting Services. Kristen Taylor brings over 30 years of experience in coding, revenue cycle processes and compliance for physician and hospital reimbursement models. She conducts revenue cycle and operational assessments, attorney/client privileged investigations and defense support, expert witness testimony, coding reviews and provider/coder education. Her coding expertise includes anesthesia, diagnostic radiology, vascular and interventional radiology and cardiology, clinical and anatomic pathology, primary care, radiation oncology, physical medicine, rehabilitation, and pain management.
	Amy Turner, RN, BSN, MMHC, CPC, CHC, CHIAP, , is a managing director in Ankura’s Health Care and Life Sciences Practice. She is a registered nurse with a master’s degree in health care management. Turner holds certifications in health care compliance and internal audits and is a certified professional coder. She has been a registered nurse for 25 years and has clinical experience in anesthesia, pain management, medical/surgical care and critical care. She is knowledgeable with Medicare and private payer coverage policies, reimbursement guidelines, and compliance regulations. Turner’s health care operations experience includes private practices, academic medical facilities and hospital-based departments. Her unique blend of clinical, coding, and revenue cycle experience and regulatory compliance expertise allow her to offer independent and objective insights to providers, payers, executives, and counsel.

Advanced Specialty Coding Virtual Summit: Anesthesia

Pricing

Retail price: $399.00

Add on a specialty – Pain Management, Orthopedics, and/or Billing & Compliance Virtual Summit – for $100 each.

Group pricing is as follows:

• 2-10 attendees = each attendee receives 10% discount off retail price
• 11-15 attendees = each attendee receives 15% discount off retail price
• 16-20 attendees = each attendee receives 20% discount off retail price
• 21 or more attendees = each attendees receive 25% discount off retail price

Discounts will appear in your cart.

Advanced Specialty Coding Virtual Summit: Anesthesia

Continuing Education

BMSC
This program is approved by the Board of Medical Specialty Coding & Compliance (BMSC) — Advanced Specialty Coding Virtual Summit: Anesthesia on November 18-20, 2024 —
7 CEUs towards the maintenance of the ACS, SCP and CCP-P credentials.