Home repair and improvement can be hazardous to your health. Just ask the residents of Calamity Condos who are visiting the Fix ‘Em Up Clinic. Tom and Wendy decided to repaint the living room of...
Braaaaains! Braaaaains! Don’t look now, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was right about the zombie apocalypse . It’s here! Run for your lives! Okay, we’re not about to be overrun...
CMS instructed fiscal intermediaries (FI) and Medicare Administrative Contractors (MAC) to hold claims containing CPT ® code 33249 (insertion or replacement of permanent pacing cardioverter-defibrillator system with transvenous lead[s], single or dual chamber) and HCPCS code C1882 (cardioverter-defibrillator, other than single or dual chamber [implantable]).
When a physician determines the patient has a coronary artery blockage, the physician can choose from several options for treating the patient, depending on exactly what is wrong. John F. Seccombe, MD, and Betty Johnson, CPC, CPC-I, CPC-H, CPCD, CCS-P, PCS, CCP, CIC, RMC, discuss invasive and non-invasive treatments, as well as the heart’s anatomy.
The Bishop’s Score is primarily a scoring system to assess the viability and/or success of an induction of labor, odds of a spontaneous pre-term delivery, or whether a cesarean section should be considered instead of a vaginal delivery. Lori-Lynne Webb, CPC, CCS-P, CCP , explains how physicians tally the Bishop’s Score and what coders should look for in the documentation.
CMS did not discuss drug administration services in the 2012 OPPS final rule, but the AMA did make significant additions to the CPT ® coding guidelines in the 2012 CPT Manual . Jugna Shah, MPH, and Kimberly Anderwood Hoy, JD, CPC, review the guidelines and explain the nuances to keep coders up to date.
QUESTION: Can you explain the difference between modifier -80 (assistant at surgery by another physician) and –AS (physician assistant, nurse practitioner, or clinical nurse specialist services for assistant at surgery)? Medicare requires us to use both modifiers for our physician assistants. We have been instructed to use -AS first and -80 second for all Medicare claims submissions. Is this correct?
...and the documentation coach will turn into a pumpkin if you're not on time. As a CDI specialist, what has been your approach to ICD-10? Are you hoping it will go away? Are you waiting for 2014?...
In this month's issue, we unravel some of the confusion around coding for injections and infusions, compare ICD-9-CM and ICD-10-CM coding for spinal conditions, examine the changes to fracture coding in ICD-10-CM, and provide expert answers to reader questions.
Our coding experts answer your questions about unsuccessful foreign body removal, assigning modifier -52 for cancelled procedures, new HCPCS codes for April, reporting vaccine administration codes, new composite codes for 2012.
Depending on the demographics of the region a hospital serves, its coders could determine code assignment for hundreds of deliveries and pregnancy-related services annually — reviewing coding guidelines is helpful.
Coders will need more information in order to code for fractures in ICD-10-CM. For instance, the physician must document which specific bone is fractured, including which side of the body. They will also need to document whether the patient is seen for an initial or subsequent visit.
Spinal conditions can be congenital, pathologic, or traumatic, and they can affect the vertebrae, spinal cord, muscles, nerves, discs, or a combination of the parts of the spine.
Learn how the ICD-10 delay will affect coders, why you shouldn't fear ICD-10 implementation, why you should review pregnancy coding guidelines, and how to motivate your coding staff.
Happy Monday! I hope you had a great weekend because it’s time to dive into coding for today’s visitors to the Fix ‘Em Up Clinic. Our first patient, nine-year-old Chris, arrived with a really nasty...
A surgeon performs an open reduction of right tibia fracture for an inpatient. Which ICD-10-PCS root operation should be reported? In this case, it’s fairly easy: reposition. In a reposition...
ICD-10-CM and ICD-10-PCS contain a significant number of new codes, which shouldn’t be news to anyone at this point. Most of the codes are longer than the current ICD-9-CM codes, which could increase...
Each year the number of quality measures being used for public reporting across provider settings increases. Kathy Giannangelo, MA, RHIA, CCS, CPHIMS, FAHIMA, and Linda Hyde, RHIA, explain why organizations that have not started to evaluate the impact ICD-10 will have on their quality measure data should start now.
