Some hospitals will start to receive Program for Evaluating Payment Patterns Electronic Reports (PEPPER) this month, according to TMF Health Quality Institute.
TMF contracts with CMS to produce the reports. State Medicare Quality Improvement Organizations previously produced and
Connolly Healthcare, CMS’ recovery audit contractor (RAC) for Region C, announced its first targets for complex review in December 2009. Connolly’s list of 24 DRGs is the first published, so it provides a good preview of what other RACs may target. The reviews were expected to begin in January...Read More »
Recently, we've received a few new questions. If you have experience with any of the topics in this article, please email Linnea Archibald at larchibald@acdis.org and she'll connect you to the asking Council...Read More »
Effective January 1, CMS stopped paying for the CPT codes physicians use to bill consultations. This dramatic change provides a window of opportunity for CDI specialists, who are well-positioned to not only break the bad news to physicians, but also provide them with education on how to...Read More »
In 2009, HCPro's Revenue Cycle Institute conducted an in-depth study on recovery audit contractor (RAC) preparedness among healthcare providers. It garnered 717 responses from all four RAC jurisdictions. Respondents hailed from healthcare providers of various sizes: 25% came from hospitals with...Read More »
In collaboration with 3M Health Information Systems, ACDIS issued a survey in January 2021 to members of the ACDIS CDI Leadership Council. Its purpose was to gather data on the ways leaders monitor impact and communicate CDI’s value to justify program investments, how CDI departments leverage...Read More »
Septicemia has been problematic for some time. Coders often misunderstand the ICD-9-CM Official Guidelines for Coding and Reporting as it pertains to the sequencing of the assigned codes, says Shannon E. McCall, RHIA, CCS, CCS-P, CPC, CPC-I, CCDS, director of HIM
I’ve received a few phone calls lately from people interested in the CDI profession. They want to know: Who are CDI specialists? Are they qualified to become one? It’s a difficult question to answer. Many hospitals require an RN licensure. Others use nurses in combination with HIM/coding...Read More »