Q: We have an elderly patient admitted to our hospital who is also presenting with osteoarthritis (OA) of the right knee. How can we determine primary versus secondary OA, and how would it be reported in ICD-10-CM?
The Office of Inspector General (OIG) recently announced it plans to audit hospital inpatient claims. According to the report, the OIG wants to determine if inpatient claims with short lengths of stay were incorrectly billed as inpatient when they should have been billed as outpatient or outpatient with observation.
Alicia Kutzer, Esq., LL.M., M.H.A , reviews CMS’ Interim Final Rule with Request for Comments (IFC) concerning coverage, billing, and payment for COVID-19 vaccines and therapeutics. This guidance is imperative for inpatient hospitals to evaluate to ensure proper documentation and reimbursement.
Sarah A. Nehring, RHIT, CCS, CCDS, details ICD-10-CM reporting and clinical indicators for hepatic fibrosis, cirrhosis, and complications caused by cirrhosis such as ascites and spontaneous bacterial peritonitis. Note : To access this free article, make sure you first register here if you do not have a paid subscription.
Gloryanne Bryant, RHIA, CDIP, CCS, CCDS, writes that the better the CDI policies and procedures, the better CDI and inpatient coding departments can work efficiently together to achieve proper documentation, coding, and reimbursement.
Up to now, public health data collection has been mainly focused on adult COVID-19 patients, but we are beginning to see data indicating that COVID-19 is impacting children’s health as well. With more of the spotlight on pediatric COVID-19 diagnoses, it’s important to ensure proper documentation to help improve data collection.
Q: Our coding team is having trouble understanding the different types of chronic respiratory failure (CRF) and knowing when to suspect its presence when it’s not specifically documented by our physicians. Can you please help us with this?
Incorrect acute stroke diagnosis codes reported by Medicare providers resulted in millions of dollars in increased payments to Medicare Advantage organizations, according to a recent Office of Inspector General (OIG) report.
Sarah Nehring, RHIT, CCS, CCDS , details three significant changes to the ICD-10-CM tabular list Excludes notes that may prove valuable to hospitals in fiscal year (FY) 2021, including updates to Excludes notes for encephalopathy, toxic encephalopathy, and more. Note : To access this free article, make sure you first register here if you do not have a paid subscription.
