Q:I’m having problems determining the correct coding guidelines for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and pneumonia. Have the guidelines changed regarding COPD and pneumonia? Do you now have to code the pneumonia as a COPD with a lower respiratory infection...Read More »
The long-anticipated ICD-10-CM Official Guidelines for Coding and Reporting for fiscal year 2017 were released earlier this month, and include a definition for Exclude 1 notes, guidance for meaning and application of the word “with,” and clarification for laterality, according to an...Read More »
For 27.3% of patients with depression and 27.7% of patients with bipolar disorder, providers did not integrate their diagnosis into their primary care electronic health record (EHR), according to a study published in the April 2016 Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association.Read More »
Q: On pages 139-140 of the 2016 CDI Pocket Guide, the guidance states that code J95.82 should not be assigned when post procedural respiratory failure is attributed by the provider to a preexisting or other underlying condition. It seems like this statement contradicts...Read More »
The newly proposed Sepsis-3 definition has been the subject of great controversy and consternation since its publication in The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) on February 23, 2016. That controversial definition discarded the concept of SIRS as the basis for defining sepsis...Read More »
CMS released the fiscal year (FY) 2017 IPPS final rule yesterday. CMS made changes to several quality initiatives and reversed the agency’s 0.2% payment reduction instituted along with the 2-midnight rule in the FY 2014 rule. Read More »
Q: Does the provider have to say "acute" exacerbation of COPD or just COPD exacerbation?
A: The best way to figure out the required wording is to take a peek into a code book. If we look at the code J44.1 for COPD exacerbation, you see the word “acute” in parentheses. When words within...Read More »