A Primer for Billing in Interventional Pain Management

The surge of interest in pain from many types of physicians over the past few decades has resulted in a specialty with unique challenges. In response to the growth in pain medicine, pain fellowships have emerged to appropriately diagnose and to treat a wide variety of pain conditions. Despite improvements and standardization among pain fellowships, education in the basics of billing and coding is typically limited. Though courses on proper billing practices exist within the specialty of pain medicine, many new practitioners are challenged by clinical responsibilities with limited training with regards to billing and coding of pain services. Inaccurate billing and coding can result in financial issues and legal ramifications. ICD-10, which is expected later this year, will present additional challenges to effective billing and coding. In summary, there are frequent changes to the rules and regulations governing pain management that can significantly impact practice management. Strong consideration should be made by stakeholders in any pain practitioner to attend regular educational meetings and take steps necessary for continued compliance, efficiency, quality, and profitability. A basic primer on concepts related to billing and code terminology, therefore, is presented for clinicians.