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Best practice

The Best Practice tool displays for each department in your CDM a list of CPT/HCPCS codes you would expect to find in a comprehensive facility. You may not perform all the services listed. Best Practice flags the services present in your selected department. It also indicates if the service is present anywhere in your CDM. Effective dates for each code listed help you prioritize your review around the most recent code changes.

Options checklist:

I want a list of services that could be missing from my CDM.
I want to see if any new codes were added this year that should be added to my CDM.
I want to set up a new department we are considering to identify the procedures that might be provided and their related fee schedules.

Key information and lessons from the field:

During the initial set-up of Chargemaster Toolkit the Supervisor maps each hospital department using the GL Type Manager Tool. This process allows the Toolkit to compare the department’s charges to a Best Practice data base that represents a comprehensive CDM. Prior to using the Best Practice Tool it is important to make sure the default department mappings applied by the Toolkit are appropriate and adjust them as needed.
New billing codes can be added through the Best Practice Tool by ticking the box proceeding the CPT/HCPCS code and clicking the apply button. Chargemaster Toolkit will set up the new billing code with a CPT/HCPCS code, the AMA short description and a default revenue code in the department selected. To locate the new code in the Active Window press F4 and minimize or close the Best Practice window. Any data field can now be edited as you see fit from the Active Window. More than one new charge can be added by ticking several boxes before the apply button.
To create a ‘new’ department some hospitals will temporarily change the GL mapping of an existing, very small department. Then, using the Best Practice tool for that department they will add all services from the Best Practice list to their CDM. Once this is done the user can create a report that will match fee schedule data to the HCPCS codes for further analysis outside of the Toolkit. You must be cautious when using this feature! Once this analysis is completed you MUST check-in the data file WITHOUT saving your changes to avoid unintentionally adding these items to your master file. Check with the Craneware training team before attempting this analysis on your own the first time.
The Best Practice Tool can support a quick annual review process with each clinical department to assure that new codes and new services are considered as part of the annual maintenance process. Clicking on the effective date column in the Best Practice window will sort the items allowing you to focus on codes most recently created.

Best practice

Key information and lessons from the field:

Further reading: