In 2007, CMS began monitoring claims for hospital-acquired conditions (HAC), which are conditions that occur after the physician writes the inpatient admission order and that could have been reasonably prevented through the application of evidence-based guidelines and best practices. Today,...Read More »
In the aggressive post-discharge auditing environment where I now find myself practicing medicine, I and my colleagues are subject to heavy scrutiny by CMS and private insurers. Observation versus inpatient status review is the new focus of these non-...Read More »
by Glenn Krauss, RHIA, CCS, CCS-P, CPUR, C-CDI, CCDS
Because most CMS local and national coverage determinations governing medical necessity and limitations of coverage center around outpatient procedures (e.g., lesion removals, cataract surgeries, and blepharoplasty repairs),...Read More »
Q: I am wondering about whether coders can use information the physician takes from test results and includes in the history and physical (H&P). We recently had a situation where the H&P indicated under the studies section that “chest x-ray showed atelectasis,” or “EKG showed...Read More »
Nobody reads blog bios. But if you read mine, you’ll see mention of Thomas, one of my four cats. I keep his picture as my work computer’s background, and because I have dual screens, I get to look at him twice.
Many novice CDI specialists do not readily identify when a diagnosis needs clarification. The following list is intended to serve a gentle reminder to “dig deeper.” Here is a list of “clue” words to help you identify when a query may be needed for...Read More »
Q: For a newly trained CDI specialist, what is the approximate number of reviews (both concurrent and follow up) one should expect him/her to be able to handle per day? I recall from the CDI Boot Camp that the starting number was about 10, but I can’t remember how many new versus follow-...Read More »
I recently had occasion to stop and think about how I approach a chart for a clinical documentation review. For me, it has become an almost instinctual process, so I found it instructive to examine my process in a more systematic...Read More »
