Well, it’s happened again. Because of inappropriate definitions of new disease codes, Medicare could take a massive hit financially and get into...Read More »
Documentation is central to accurate coding and reimbursement. It justifies treatment, supports the diagnosis, and captures patient severity and acuity. None of that comes as a surprise to coders, who often have to deal with documentation shortcomings.
Q:Some of our physicians have started documenting “aspiration without pneumonia.” When I questioned one of them about it, he said the patient had acid pulmonary syndrome/Mendelson’s syndrome. When I told the physician that this condition maps to the code for pneumonia,...Read More »
Many CDI specialists don’t spend a lot of time working with obstetric (OB) records, or may even ignore them altogether, principally because of the ICD-9-CM Chapter 11 coding guideline that basically says that pregnancy overrides...Read More »
The length of stay (LOS) for coronary artery bypass graft patients and valve replacement patients at York Hospital (YH)/ Wellspan Health was significantly higher than the Medicare geometric mean length of stay (GMLOS) according to results of a record...Read More »
Q:I was wondering what supporting evidence there is for the recommendation to go ahead and link hypertension (HTN) with heart failure as a combination code? The Official Guideline for Coding and Reporting as well as Coding Clinic for ICD-9-CM seems to...Read More »
