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This is part of my series of articles about Useful Information on Medicare Audits.

Here are the “reasons for denial” codes for hyperbaric oxygen therapy posted on the Palmetto website. Although they are posted on the Palmetto website, these come from CMS and thus are universal for all MACs. What is scary here is that a lot of this is open to interpretation by the auditor such as: documentation indicating patient was unresponsive to conventional medical and surgical management, documentation patient has failed an adequate course of standard wound therapy, documentation addressing the patient’s nutritional status, optimal glucose control, or no documentation that treatment is an adjunct to conventional therapy.

Take special note of this: Hyperbaric Oxygen (HBO) therapy treatment records did not include the ascent time, descent time, total compression time, dose of oxygen, pressurization level, documentation of attendance, and a recording of events.

There are a lot of implications here when it comes to documentation…

The opinions, comments, and content expressed or implied in my statements are solely my own and do not necessarily reflect the position or views of Intellicure or any of the boards on which I serve.