A recent salary survey conducted by our sister publication Medical Records Briefing found the same trends prevail year after year: the 145 HIM professionals who responded feel they are overworked and underpaid.
CMS announced a new incentive program designed to reduce complications from joint replacement surgery. The new proposed Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement will require bundling of reimbursement for hip and knee surgeries, with profits tied closely to costs and quality metrics.
Q: In ICD-9-CM, sprains and strains fall under the same codes. Will that also be the case in ICD-10-CM or are we going to report these injuries separately?
Q: Should “diabetes with gastroparesis” be coded as 536.3, diabetes with a complication code? I understood that the term ‘"with’" can link two diagnoses, but that it does not represent a cause-and-effect relationship. Can you please clarify this, and why a cause-and-effect relationship can be assumed in the term “diabetes with gastroparesis”?
An automated Recovery Auditor review of discharge status codes identified improper payments, according to the Medicare Quarterly Compliance Newsletter . However, CMS did not report the prevalence of the errors.
The 2014 ICD-10 implementation delay negatively impacted ICD-10 preparations, according to the Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange (WEDI) February 2015 readiness survey .
CMS Transmittal 3217 , effective April 1, will allow inpatient-only procedures to be included on inpatient claims, similar to other outpatient services included in the three-day window.