AAO-HNSF 2026

The AAO-HNSF Annual Meeting & OTO EXPO brings otolaryngologist-head and neck surgeons together for research, clinical best practices, networking, and exhibits. The 2026 meeting takes place at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Meet Ember at booth 916 to discuss revenue integrity for ENT and allergy practices, with a focus on the coding, documentation, and payer-policy issues that create avoidable claim rework.

ENT revenue cycle teams manage a mix of surgical, in-office, and ancillary services. Endoscopic sinus surgery, balloon sinuplasty, allergy testing, immunotherapy, and audiology each have different billing requirements. A useful review connects the clinical record to the applicable coding rules, payer policy, and contract terms. Ember reviews encounters before claims submit and helps teams prepare appeals when denials occur.

For sinus surgery, the conversation can cover multi-sinus bundling, bilateral reporting, and modifier requirements. Ember checks functional endoscopic sinus surgery claims against payer bundling and bilateral rules and returns suggested corrections with rule citations. For same-day evaluation and management visits and procedures, it also reviews modifier 25 logic. The goal is to identify issues before submission rather than leave teams to investigate them after a denial.

Medical necessity and prior authorization deserve a separate review. For balloon sinuplasty and septoplasty, payer criteria can include prior medical therapy, imaging findings, and symptom duration. An authorization alone does not resolve missing documentation or a mismatch between the approved service and the claim. Ember flags documentation gaps, checks authorization requirements, and gathers supporting records for payer submissions and appeals.

For allergy testing and immunotherapy, accurate antigen counts and dose units matter across recurring visits. Ember validates unit counts and modifier logic against the encounter documentation and payer requirements. Teams can also discuss how to compare expected reimbursement with actual payments to identify line-item underpayments across surgical, in-office, and ancillary claims.

When a claim is denied, Ember reviews the denial reason, retrieves supporting records, references the relevant payer policy and contract terms, and drafts an appeal package. For ENT cases, those records can include operative notes, CT findings, and conservative-therapy documentation. Tracking the claim through adjudication helps distinguish an unresolved appeal from a paid claim and reveals recurring issues worth addressing upstream.

To prepare for a meeting, identify your highest-volume denial categories, the procedures that require the most rework, your EHR and practice management systems, and the workflow you want to evaluate first. Discuss patterns without bringing patient-identifiable information to the exhibit floor. Use the conference website above for registration, the program, and travel details. Schedule a meeting with Ember to explore how these workflows fit your practice.