So many coding topics to audit, yet so few staff members to perform those audits. Julie Daube, BS, RHIT, CCS, CCS-P, reveals steps you can take to resolve this dilemma and determine which areas to audit in 2013.
Ethical dilemmas can creep in at any time during a coder’s average workday. However, one might be hard pressed to find a coder who will openly acknowledge this. Brad Hart, MBA, MS, CMPE, CPC, COBGC, and Kathy DeVault, RHIA, CCS, CCS-P, explore how coders can and should handle ethical dilemmas.
Our coding experts answer your questions about how to determine the correct units for drugs, billing for fluoroscopy, therapy caps under OPPS, and payment for critical care and separately reported services
The rules for coding for facilities and physicians are basically the same for most services, but coders follow different rules for appending certain modifiers. Christi Sarasin, CCS, CCDS, CPC-H, FCS , Kimberly Anderwood Hoy, JD, CPC , and Peggy Blue, MPH, CPC, CCS-P, separate physician and facility rules for using modifiers -26, -TC, and -79.
ICD-10-CM code category J45.- includes new, more specific terms for asthma that may help improve data quality and lead to more effective research and treatments. Deborah Grider, CPC, CPC-I, CPC-H, CPC-P, CPMA, CEMC, CPCD, COBGC, CCS-P CDIP, and Suzan Berman, CPC, CEMC, CEDC, detail the new terminology for asthma coding in ICD-10-CM.
In ICD-9-CM, coders report specific codes to indicate a surgeon used robotic assistance. Lori-Lynne A. Webb, CPC, CCS-P, CCP, CHDA, COBGC, explains how that will change in ICD-10-PCS.
CMS proposed extending the delay on enforcement of physician supervision rules for critical access hospitals and small and rural hospitals with 100 or fewer beds for one final year as part of the 2013 OPPS proposed rule. Debbie Mackaman, RHIA, CHCO, and Jugna Shah, MPH, detail some of the more significant proposals for 2013.
Provider documentation of inpatient wound care services may be confusing at best and completely lacking at worst. Coders end up trying to decipher exactly what procedure the provider performed. Gloryanne Bryant, BS, RHIA, RHIT, CCS, CDIP, CCDS, and Robert S. Gold, MD, offer tips to assist coders in choosing the correct code for inpatient wound care.
Our coding experts answer your questions about coding for hysteroscopy prior to ablation, appending modifier -59 for MRI and MRA, charging for venipunctures, therapy caps under OPPS, reporting limits for Provenge®, modifier -59 and infusion therapy, Reporting TEE pre- and post-operativley, coding for toxic metabolic encephalopathy
