While attending an American Health Information Management Association ICD-10 course, I was surprised to learn that there is a huge change to the coding guidelines regarding neoplasms. Currently in...
Coders and other HIM professionals generally focus on the ways ICD-10-CM is different from ICD-9-CM—the number of codes, the length of the codes, the look of the codes, the level of specificity, and...
Over the past few weeks through e-mail, at conferences, and during class many people have asked myself and my colleagues what makes the HCPro ICD-10 Basics Boot Camp ™ different from the other...
So, once we start using ICD-10 codes, will you still be able to use a super bill? A super bill is a cheat sheet that many facilities and practices develop, on which they list their top diagnostic...
ICD-10 will change more than just the code sets and will impact more than just your coders. The clinical area will face many changes because so many health plan policies are going to change, says...
In ICD-10-PCS, every procedure falls into one of 31 root operations, which define the objective of the procedure. Although some root operations seem self-explanatory (e.g., transplantation or...
Rule 12 of the 2010 ICD-10-CM Official Guidelines for Coding and Reporting reads: Reporting same diagnosis code more than once Each unique ICD-10-CM diagnosis code may be reported only once for an...
CMS will hold a Special Forum to receive input on the development and implementation of its hospital value-based purchasing program, as required by Section 3001 of the Affordable Care Act. The...
By now everyone knows that coders will need more documentation and specificity to assign the correct ICD-10 codes. And everyone knows that increased documentation has to come from the providers—the...
Looking forward to it? Did I really just say that? Yep – I sure did! In July, I attended a preview of HCPro’s ICD-10 Basics Boot Camp ™. I was actually a little surprised that the ICD-10-CM codes,...
CMS posted this week the following ICD-10-PCS files for 2011 to its website: Official ICD-10-PCS Coding Guidelines 2011 Version: What's New Code Tables and Index Code Descriptions ICD-10-PCS...
I often wondered how the ICD-9-CM code set would translate to ICD-10-CM/PCS in regards to MS-DRGs. I couldn’t fathom that along with the costly transition to a new code set, CMS would “double whammy...
The Glasgow Coma Scale provides an objective way of recording the conscious state of a person, for initial as well as continuing assessment. A patient is assessed against the criteria of the scale,...
Sometimes we get really excited about code changes, especially when they have such a huge impact on documentation issues. One such exciting change is in the ICD-10 coding guidelines for Chapter 6:...
If you have taken a peek at a draft ICD-10-PCS Manual , you probably realize that you need to be come familiar with a number of root procedures, some of which you may not even be familiar with. But...
One of the biggest changes in ICD-10-CM is the volume of codes that specify laterality. Providers will need to document which side, right or left, that the injury or diagnosis has occurred for...
I taught the first “official” two-day HCPro ICD-10 Basics Boot Camp™ a couple weeks ago. I was pleasantly surprised that all 50 participants felt the new coding system was easily learned. If I can...
During the ICD-9-CM Coordination & Maintenance Committee Meeting on Sept. 15, CMS representative Pat Brooks, RHIA, announced that the committee had finalized the decision to implement a partial...
One of the things that is not changing between ICD-9 and ICD-10—which often takes hospital coders by surprise—is that coders of professional services cannot code diagnoses documented with the terms “...
When coding with ICD-10, there may be terms that neither your coders nor your physicians are used to using. Now is the time to pass on this knowledge to your medical staff so they can understand what...
