Hospitals are seeing a growing number of staff move off-site. Remote inpatient coders are common and might work from home several days a week. The shift is fueled in part by EHRs: As paper records disappear, it’s less necessary to have staff in nonclinical positions on-site. And, for many hospitals, space is at a premium.
With yearly code and guideline updates to the respiratory system, it’s important for coders to stay abreast of changes to ensure documentation and coding integrity.
When asked to describe their job, many CDI professionals explain that they help physicians and coders paint an accurate picture of the care provided to patients. But how can CDI programs flip the canvas and dip their brushes to paint their own self-portrait?
It seems that the current buzz in the CDI and inpatient coding world is hierarchical condition categories (HCCs) and other health plan funding models. Everyone’s talking about HCCs for the inpatient, including AHIMA , ACDIS , and the AMA .
Hiring top-notch inpatient coders: Is it good luck, great karma, or the power of prayer? Many coding managers say it takes all three to recruit high-quality, experienced medical record coders post-ICD-10.
In advance of ICD-10-CM/PCS, many institutions implemented computer-assisted coding (CAC) hoping to mitigate the anticipated productivity losses, but some research has confirmed my suspicions that there is an inverse relationship between coding productivity and accuracy.
According to the American Cancer Society, skin cancer is by far the most common type of cancer . Exposure to harmful ultraviolet (UV) rays from the sun without protection can cause skin cancer. UV rays can come from other sources as well, such as tanning beds and sun lamps. The number of skin cancer diagnoses has increased in the past few years.
Coding Clinic , Fourth Quarter 2017, which became effective October 1, has interesting morsels affecting ICD-10-CM/PCS documentation and coding compliance.
Yes, I’ll admit it: I used to be one of those people. Before finding a great fit on a CDI dream team, I worked as a medical review examiner for a Medicare Administrative Contractor (MAC). During that time, I reviewed Part A claims for inpatient stays, therapy reviews, medications, and Recovery Auditor (RA) appeals—to name a few. Not only did I gain experience working with Medicare hospital claims, but I also got to see a little bit of how different facilities approach their denials.
