Q: A patient presents with acute respiratory failure with hypoxia due to an accidental heroin overdose. What is going to be sequenced first: the acute respiratory failure or the poisoning?
CMS is signaling a clear shift in how it views risk adjustment, quality performance, and documentation integrity. For coding and CDI professionals, this moment represents not a threat, but a critical inflection point.
The phrase “don’t reinvent the wheel” applies well to the development of an outpatient CDI program when a mature inpatient CDI foundation already exists. The challenge is not whether the wheel can be reused, but how to navigate the differences.
Modifier -59 is used to describe a distinct procedural service. It’s appended to codes to identify procedures/services that are not usually payable when reported together. Note : To access this free article, make sure you first register here if you do not have a paid subscription.
Net spending on Medicaid outpatient prescription drugs grew substantially in recent years while the number of prescriptions paid by Medicaid only grew slightly, according to a recent issue brief from KFF.
Changes to the Medicare provider-based billing requirements for off-campus outpatient departments are coming with the passage of the Consolidated Appropriations Act last month.
Modifiers -50, -RT, and -LT are laterality modifiers that clarify a CPT code by defining which side of the body the service was performed on. But knowing when to use them is not always immediately clear. Note : To access this free article, make sure you first register here if you do not have a paid subscription.
Radiation oncology is a specialty utilizing radioelements either externally or internally to treat medical conditions such as cancer. This article serves as a primer for coding radiation oncology services.
