News: IPPS final rule focused on quality

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.

This quality focus creates a need for increased interdisciplinary collaboration across CDI, quality, HIM, risk management, revenue cycle, compliance, and technology.

“The 2015 IPPS rule emphasizes that hospitals, physicians, coders, and clinical documentation integrity staff must understand the risk-adjustment methodologies inherent to value-based purchasing,” says James S. Kennedy, MD, CCS, CDIP, president of CDIMD – Physician Champions in Smyrna, Tennessee. “These complex documentation requirements must be woven into the hospital’s EMR fabric so as to not impede the physician’s natural work flow or burden him or her with numerous post-discharge queries.”

Editor’s Note: ACDIS members received this Breaking News alert previously. Read the complete report at HCPro.com