Hospital medicine is a specialty that provides inpatient services for patients admitted to the hospital. Hospitalists are often called on to consult in regards to and to follow medical problems that occur during hospitalization for surgery, psychiatric hospitalizations, and obstetrical patients. Lois E. Mazza, CPC, explains how to correctly report hospitalist services.
Inpatient-only procedures are those that CMS has determined providers must perform on an inpatient basis. Kimberly Anderwood Hoy, JD, CPC, and Beverly Cunningham, MS, RN, unravel the complexities of coding for these procedures.
Patients aren’t the only ones paying attention to quality scores these days. Payers are, too. Cheryl Manchenton, RN, BSN, and Audrey G. Howard, RHIA, explain why coders and clinical documentation improvement specialists must understand which conditions affect provider profiles.
Coders are already familiar with the Table of Drugs in ICD-9-CM, but they will find some important differences in ICD-10-CM. Shannon McCall, RHIA, CCS, CCS-P, CPC, CPC-I, CEMC, CCDS, and Ann Zeisset, RHIT, CCS, CCS-P, walk through the key similarities and differences in the Table of Drugs.
Program for Evaluating Payment Patterns Electronic Report compares hospital data regarding a variety of benchmarks. John Zelem, MD, FACS, and Brenda Hogan, RN, BS, explain how hospitals can use PEPPER to identify risk areas and create a plan for self-auditing.
Many coders can quickly quote the code for diabetes mellitus in ICD-9-CM (code 250.00) when the physician only documents diabetes mellitus. But what will coders need in the documentation for diabetes mellitus in ICD-10-CM? Dissect the differences in coding for diabetes mellitus in ICD-9-CM and ICD-10-CM.
ICD-9-CM and ICD-10-CM stroke and coma codes reveal many similarities and some important differences. Alice Zentner, RHIA, and James S. Kennedy, MD, CCS, CDIP, explain the changes and what coders need to know to prepare for ICD-10-CM stroke and coma coding.
Coders face many challenges when coding for services provided by teaching physicians, interns, residents, and students. Medicare has specific rules and regulations surrounding what services it will pay for when an intern, a resident, or a student provides services. Lori-Lynne A. Webb, CPC, COBGC, CCS-P, CCP, CHDA, details what coders need to see in the documentation before reporting these services.
