Q: A month ago, a patient had undergone an open reduction and internal fixation of a traumatic fracture of the left femur. This afternoon, she was admitted for a severe and deep infection of the left thigh and immediately taken to surgery. An open, wide excisional debridement of the infected skin, subcutaneous tissue, and fascia was carried out, and the internal fixation hardware was removed. Cultures of the fixation pins grew Staphylococcus aureus. Can coders report infections of devices similar to how they would report a wound infection in ICD-10-CM?
Coders play a crucial role in addressing clinical and coding denials, but they are far from alone in this effort. All HIM professionals are working together to create and implement comprehensive strategies that effectively reduce denials, fostering a unified approach to overcoming these challenges.
Although typically associated with outpatient services due to their use of HCPCS codes, chargemasters are also crucial in inpatient settings, as they serve as the foundation for billing services rendered during a patient’s hospital stay. Learn how inpatient coders can help maintain the financial health of their organizations through the proper understanding of chargemasters. Note : To access this free article, make sure you first register if you do not have a paid subscription.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has pulled information on health-related social needs (HRSN), a subset of broader social determinants of health factors, for state Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program, potentially making it harder for services that address HRSNs to be covered by these affected programs.
Train new coders to follow CMS’ rules when they find CPT guidance that doesn’t match Medicare’s requirements. This article discusses how the CPT manual’s instructions to report modifier -99 (Multiple modifiers) don’t match instructions from CMS and some Medicare administrative contractors.
Postherpetic neuralgia (PHN) is severe pain caused by damage to the nerves at the area or areas affected by shingles after the rash is resolved. Typically, it is pain that persists four or more months after the initial onset of the rash. For documentation purposes, the physician would need to state which type of PHN the patient has. Note: To access this free article, make sure you first register here if you do not have a paid subscription.
The largest barriers and facilitators to screening, documenting, and addressing adverse social determinants of health across United States’ emergency departments have been identified in a recent study published in JAMA Network Open.
Selecting a level of medical decision-making (MDM) is confusing and complicated. In this article, Terry Tropin, MSHAI, RHIA, CCS-P, defines key MDM terms and describes a simplified system for selecting a level of MDM.
