The annual incidence of an initial venous thromboembolism (VTE) event, either a pulmonary embolus (PE) or a deep vein thrombosis (DVT), is approximately 0.1% in the United States, with the highest incidence among the elderly and a recurrence rate of about 7% at six months.
Each new CMS fiscal year, MS-DRG weight and classification changes in the CMS IPPS final rule are closely scrutinized by coders and CDI specialists to identify any potential impact on documentation capture and code assignment processes.
ICD-10-PCS root operations Excision and Resection differ only in how much of a body part is removed. Review these situations to clarify which root operation to report.
Physicians often use the terms acute renal failure (ARF) and acute kidney injury (AKI) interchangeably to describe an abrupt decrease in kidney function that is reversible within three months of loss of function.
Patient Safety Indicator 90 evaluates hospital performance for defined in-hospital complications and adverse events. Find out more about how clinical documentation and coding can affect this measure in the first of a four-part series.
The American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) and the Association of Clinical Documentation Improvement Specialists (ACDIS) released joint physician query instructions in Guidelines for Achieving a Compliant Query Practice in February 2013.
Coding tells a patient's story, based on the narrative the physician provides in his or her documentation. Accurately painting a picture of the patient's severity of illness (SOI) and risk of mortality (ROM) is essential for good patient care, and it is becoming increasingly important for quality measures and payment.
Despite all the uncertainty surrounding the implementation of ICD-10-CM/PCS, the Cooperating Parties (i.e., the American Hospital Association, AHIMA, CMS, and the National Center for Healthcare Statistics) nevertheless decided that the farewell issue of Coding Clinic for ICD-9-CM (which was published in the first quarter of 2014) will remain the farewell issue.