Q: If a patient has hypertensive heart disease or cerebrovascular accident (CVA) with hemiparesis in his or her past medical history which has not been brought forward in the patient’s medical record for their current inpatient stay, can the coders assign a code for that...Read More »
We’re less than six weeks away from our annual conference! As the countdown continues, we’re previewing a handful of speakers to give you a feel for the educational sessions being offered. This week, we spoke with Lynn H. Lowery, CPC, CFPC, who, along with Trey A. La...Read More »
October 1, 2015, will be the new ICD-10 implementation date, according to the final rule, Administrative Simplification: Change to the Compliance Date for the International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision (ICD–10–CM and ICD-10-PCS) Medical Data Code Set, published...Read More »
A significant portion of updates in the Fiscal Year 2015 IPPS final rule pertain to the Hospital Value-Based Purchasing (VBP) Program, the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program, and the Hospital-Acquired Condition (HAC) Reduction Program.Read More »
Safety net hospitals—those with a Medicare Disproportionate Share patient percentage in the highest quartile—have a higher risk of reimbursement reductions associated with various Value-Based Purchasing (VBP) initiatives such as the Hospital Readmission Reduction Program (HRRP), according to a...Read More »
Due to the continued delay in awarding new Recovery Auditor (RA) contracts, CMS made modifications to the current RA contracts allowing them to restart some reviews. Most will be done on an automated basis, but a limited number will be complex reviews of topics selected by CMS. In the meantime,...Read More »
Have you started dual coding for ICD-9 and ICD-10? Two facilities shared their experiences during a July AHA webinar. The first task is to determine what dual coding means for your facility, said Nelly Leon-Chisen, RHIA, director of coding and classification for the AHA. Are you coding...Read More »