As I understand it, the main reason that insurance reimbursement should
not be discussed in this forum has to do with USA fair trade issues--
if we discuss insurance reimbursement and practices (service and/or
diagnosis coding) in this forum we could all be charged with price
fixing and such.

Having done insurance billing for more than nine years in my husband's
medical practice I read plenty about this sort of issue.  If two office
billing people have a conversation about their billing practices and go
forth the wiser it is okay.  If multiple offices are involved then all
may be charged with having engaged in "price fixing."

OTOH, if you have a conference session on best billing practices, have
some one explain all the issues involved in chosing an appropriate
service and / or diagnosis code, it is education. They can even discuss
which practices have netted the best reimbursement rate, etc. (Just
don't go from this conference to lunch with other LC's and discuss how
all of this will affect your different practices, and the FTC, Federal
Trade Commission, will be happy.)

It would be fine for someone to do a survey and publish an article in
any one of the journals or newsletters about how various practices
handle this issue.  Again that is educational.  In medicine there are
several journals which are devoted to this type of information, and
there is no problem with them doing surveys and publishing the results
by region, type of insurer, etc.

Melinda Hoskins, MS, RN
Carson Valley, Nevada
Snow started falling about 1.5 hours ago and its beautiful.  maybe it
will all be gone by Monday when I return to work.  The Sierra is getting
a pounding today.