Cross-training coders has definitive short-term advantages, such as enhancing staff coverage during holidays and vacations and increasing the department's ability to handle periods of fluctuation in certain bill types, but these aren't the only benefits.
Whether you work in a dedicated children’s hospital or a general hospital with a pediatric service line, you will likely come into contact with coding charts of kids. Sometimes they are easy (e.g., an inguinal hernia repair without obstruction or gangrene is an inguinal hernia repair without obstruction or gangrene—except it has to be identified as right or left in ICD-10). Sometimes they are not so easy (e.g., complex congenital diseases and their manifestations and complications).
Each physician may have his or her own way of describing a stroke. However, consistent terminology leads to accurate data to describe the care provided as well as the mortality, length of stay, and cost statistics.
Although ICD-10-CM resolves some problematic areas of coding, it isn't a panacea. Respiratory insufficiency is one diagnosis that will continue to challenge coders.
Coding managers and their team members sometimes must approach physicians in person regarding documentation. Clarification may be necessary, or perhaps you will need to coax the physician to complete certain records without further delay.
Inpatient hospitals will see CMS payment rates increase 2.3% in FY 2013 if the agency finalizes the change in the IPPS proposed rule released in April. CMS expects that in FY 2013, the documentation and coding adjustment will net an aggregate 0.2% increase. Other quality-of-care initiatives could reduce payments.