Q: I have been dealing with a denial issue where, because a chest x-ray did not show pneumonia and a repeat x-ray was not performed, the pneumonia was denied. In dehydrated or immunocompromised patient the chest x-ray may not initially show the pneumonia. I am now looking for supporting...Read More »
Starting in January 2022, Associate Editorial Director Linnea Archibald began sending out “missed connections” emails with questions from Council members every Monday. Anyone with experience related to one of the questions was invited to respond and Archibald connected them with the question...Read More »
Q: Do you code the procedure for tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) administration when it is done in your emergency room for patients being admitted with cerebrovascular accident (CVA)/stroke on inpatient cases?
I believe the procedure code is 99.10...Read More »
Q: A patient with a urinary tract infection appeared septic, and she also fit the criteria for sepsis. The physician documented the patient had SIRS but not sepsis. From a coding standpoint, SIRS is sepsis. So I’m confused about the...Read More »
Starting in January 2022, Associate Editorial Director Linnea Archibald began sending out “missed connections” emails with questions from Council members every Monday. Anyone with experience related to one of the questions was invited to respond and Archibald connected them with the question...Read More »
Q:I am a case manager on a cardiac step-down unit. Our work focuses primarily on specific disease management and patient contact/education and nurse mentoring/chart reviewing, patient rounding, etc. We are very clinically focused. We don’t do utilization review (UR) or...Read More »
Q: We have a new CDI program with a huge learning curve. I am an RN in a CDI position. There are many things to ask, but the present issue is the re-querying done by the coders, which results in a large number of charts being held up. Has this been a familiar problem...Read More »
Q: We have been educated by our coding staff not to use the residents’ notes except as a guideline. They have said that they can only code the record from the actual attending documentation. We try to get physicians to co-sign the resident notes, and sometimes they do and sometimes they...Read More »