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CMS to Offer Billing Code for Heart Failure Specialists

— Should eliminate denials for appearance of double-billing

MedpageToday

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services agreed to create a billing code that eases Medicare billing by distinguishing between heart failure specialists and clinical cardiologists, according to a statement by Heart Failure Society of America.

The new specialty code for will be in place for heart failure specialists and transplant cardiologists.

This development should solve the problem of claims being denied due to the appearance of duplicate billing. In the past, this has happened when a cardiologist and a heart failure specialist from the same group practice both bill for patient evaluation and use the same code.

While the Medicare physician specialty code request submitted by Heart Failure Society of America and the American College of Cardiology was granted in late November, implementation can take up to a year to complete. Hence the actual code is not yet available.

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    Nicole Lou is a reporter for MedPage Today, where she covers cardiology news and other developments in medicine.