While most CDI specialists know to query for conditions related to malnutrition, such as obesity and cachexia, programs frequently ignore dietitians’ documentation and keep dietary professionals out of the coding/querying conversation when they should be partners at the table.Read More »
The American Hospital Association (AHA) does not plan to “convert” past issues of Coding Clinic for ICD-9-CM into new issues for ICD-10-CM/PCS, the AHA confirmed in a CMS teleconference held in November 2011. This decision caused concern...Read More »
In October 2010, when ACDIS first conducted its assessment survey regarding CDI readiness for ICD-10 implementation, 83% of respondents indicated they had no formal ICD-10 training and 44% indicated they had no training timeline (www.hcpro.com/...Read More »
The bane of many CDI specialists’ existence is trying to get physicians to buy into good documentation practices. But a recent notice issued by TrailBlazer Health Enterprises, LLC, put in about as plain words I’ve seen that contractors are now going to be comparing Part A (hospital) with Part B...Read More »
With the advent of Medicare Administrative Contractors (MAC), which review both Part A (hospital) and Part B (physician) billing, payers are now looking to ensure that physician and facility billing match, says Glenn Krauss, BBA, RHIA, CCS, CCS-P, CPUR, C-CDIS, CCDS, an ACDIS Advisory...Read More »
Q: Is it okay to include a definition of “functional quadriplegia” when we query the physician for this condition? I was surprised when I approached a physician to discuss this diagnosis and he had not heard of it. However, when I gave him the definition, he agreed with it and...Read More »