CMS recently released the fiscal year (FY) 2018 IPPS final rule which featured updates to various quality initiatives, along with annual payment updates for inpatient services.
In the 2018 OPPS proposed rule, CMS proposed a change to the current clinical laboratory date-of-service policies for molecular pathology tests and for Advanced Diagnostic Laboratory Tests.
One of the reasons that we all read Briefings in Coding Compliance Strategies is to maintain our competence and quality in coding and risk-adjustment principles as to anticipate how recovery auditors and accountability agents view our coded data. While a good compliance officer and attorney knows the law, the better one knows the law, the judge, and the jury.
Providers in some states may soon discover a big hurdle to clear when seeking to report a set of apheresis services after one MAC tightened up physician supervision requirements.
Don’t automatically presume a link between two conditions within a combination code in cases when a guideline requires that link to be explicitly documented, the latest version of the ICD-10-CM coding guidelines clarify.
Julia Hammerman, RHIA, CPHQ , and Sam Champagnie , explain how the newness and specificity of ICD-10 ushered in a stronger focus on clinical coding audits and how coding audit best practices shifted following implementation.
Shannon E. McCall, RHIA, CCS, CCS-P, CPC, CPC-I, CEMC, CRC, CCDS , writes about congestive heart failure and covers symptoms, coding best practices, and treatment for the disease using new ICD-10 for 2018.
In Major Diagnostic Category 1, Diseases and Disorders of the Nervous System, which covers MS-DRGs 020-103, CMS made changes to the classification of the diagnoses of functional quadriplegia and precerebral occlusion or transient ischemic attack with the use of a thrombolytic, as well as for the insertion of a responsive neurostimulator system. Note: To access this free article, make sure you first register here if you do not have a paid subscription.