Why does a provider use an encounter form

The broad purpose of the encounter form is for accurate charge capture and to bill professional services. Each clinical department that bills professional services must use an encounter form or electronic equivalent for data collection and control if not utilizing chart abstraction. Physicians or other providers submitting professional service charges, such as a nurse practitioner or physician assistant are responsible for the assignment of CPT and Diagnosis codes even if a qualified abstractor is coding the service.

Why is encounter data important? Accountability: utilization, access, and quality analysis. Rate setting and risk adjustment. Studies of small, high-policy-interest populations. Community-wide studies. Other research and evaluation studies. How to submit encounter data to L. Submit Encounter Data to TransUnion Healthcare no more than sixty 60 calendar days after the end date of service in which the encounter occurred to ensure routine and timely submission of Encounter Data to L.

Call TransUnion Healthcare Services. Additional Questions. Email encounter data questions or submissions to TransUnion Healthcare Services. Send Email. Learn more. They might seem confusing at first, but the idea is a simple one! In this piece, we break down what encounter forms are, go over some examples, and provide templates and virtual solutions for your convenience.

Encounter forms are a key aspect of health care, central to client wellbeing, treatment planning, and accurate billing. Whenever a patient or client receives a service, that service is recorded by the provider, generally into medical claims software that can automate much of the process that follows.

This is why encounter forms are such a key aspect of health care. Although encounter forms can differ based on company, facility type, and services offered, they will generally include the following information:.

Encounter forms can be broad and general to capture a variety of situations, or they can be customized to a specific problem or issue. For example, the American Association of Family Practitioners offers a toolbox full of encounter forms for a variety of issues, from an acute knee injury to a hypertension evaluation, from a sore throat to a pulmonary embolism screening. For instance, the acute knee injury encounter form includes a section on whether the patient experienced a pop or tear with injury, locking of the knee, or the knee giving way, while the hypertension encounter form includes fields for weight, height, BMI, and other major risk factors like tobacco use, physical inactivity, family history of premature cardiovascular disease, or diabetes.

And while the sore throat encounter form collects information on symptoms specific to a sore throat i.