News: CMS adds to the number of codes processed on institutional claims

CDI Strategies - Volume 4, Issue 10

Effective January 1, 2011, CMS will start to accept up to 25 codes for secondary diagnoses. The change, listed in a March 2010 MedLearn Matters article and also listed in the proposed IPPS rule for 2011, increases the number of acceptable codes up from just eight.

CMS says the change allows for the reporting of more present on admission codes as well as additional reporting of ICD-9-CM secondary procedure codes.
 
“It is important for everyone to know that Medicare is proposing to read 25 diagnosis and 25 procedure codes now, and process them,” says Heather Taillon, RHIA, manager of coding compliance at St. Francis Hospital in Beech Grove, IN, and a member of the ACDIS advisory board. “This will impact severity of illness and risk of mortality statistics, especially for those hospitals who didn't have a severity grouper and didn't move certain non-MCC/CC codes to the top nine positions on the UB form previously.
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