Melody Mulaik is a featured writer for ICE magazine’s billing and coding column. Melody is the president of Revenue Cycle Coding Strategies in Powder Springs, Georgia. The corporate office is located in Cedar Park, Texas. She has a masters of science in health systems and a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology. Melody’s certifications include CRA, RCC, RCC-IR, CPC and COC. In addition to managing a consulting and publishing firm with clients in all 50 states, Melody is an active presenter and writer in the specialty area of radiology coding, billing and compliance. When she is not working, she is an extensive traveler, travelling to all 50 states, as well as quite a few countries.
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PET/CT or PET and CT?
By Melody Mulaik Positron emission tomography (PET) is a nuclear medicine study that creates cross-sectional tomographic (3D) images of the metabolic activity in the patient’s tissues. The scan is performed after intravenous injection of a radiopharmaceutical. The...
Time to Re-evaluate your E/M Options
By Melody Mulaik Sweeping changes are coming for Evaluation & Management (E/M) guidelines in 2021 and this is causing many radiology practices to re-evaluate their coding and billing practices. Historically ensuring the performance and necessary time to document...
Get Credit for Your Duplex
By Melody Mulaik A duplex scan is a type of ultrasound exam designed to evaluate the pattern and direction of blood flow in arteries and/or veins. A duplex scan includes both conventional ultrasound (B-mode) and two different types of Doppler ultrasound – spectral...
Edits Take 2!
By Melody Mulaik We discussed some crazy new 2020 edits in a previous column and, fortunately, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) made some course corrections with the second quarter edits effective April 1, 2020.[1] The most anticipated update was...
Correct Billing for Extenders
By Melody Mulaik Non-physician practitioners (NPPs), such as physician assistants (PAs) and nurse practitioners (NPs) may be able to perform and bill for services independent of a physician. However, radiology practitioner assistants (RPAs)/registered radiology...
