Since the Department of Health and Human Services' January announcement on the final rule for the implementation of ICD-10, many questions have popped up. Some in the industry feel that if they do...
Since we have talked and read globally about ICD-10, I thought we should turn the pages a little deeper and look at some commonly used codes and see what they will look like October 1, 2013, when the...
One of the most poorly documented and miscoded diagnosis is when a physician documents the term "urosepsis." Does the physician mean that the patient has a systemic infection originating from a...
With all the complexities related to the implementation of ICD-10, it's no wonder that so many in the healthcare industry have a number of questions related to the various aspects of this new coding...
Discussions are starting regarding ICD-10, and there are many rumblings in the coding community. Just like anything else, something new and different can bring on feelings of being overwhelmed. Yes,...
You will need to make significant changes to your superbill due to the fact that ICD-10-CM contains a considerably larger number of codes than ICD-9-CM. At the American Academy of Professional Coders...
At the American Academy of Professional Coders national conference in Las Vegas, the ICD-10 sessions were buzzing as the HIM/coding community sounded out about the impact ICD-10 will have on...
Currenty, the American Health Information Management Association's (AHIMA) Council on Certification (COC) has made the following recommendations regarding how credentialed members (and certified...
At the American Academy of Professional Coders conference in Las Vegas, a wave of ICD-10 info (and emotion) washed over the conference attendees. Reed Pew, the AAPC CEO and president, made one...
Ready for another little ICD-10 nugget? Coders will have to learn a number of different coding conventions for ICD-10. For example, for injury code assignment, coders will need to specify whether a...
Can you code ICD-10 from the documentation your physicians currently provide? Look at several records for each of your physicians and ask yourself whether you could assign codes in ICD-10 based on...
It may sound like such a small detail, but when your information technology (IT) team is looking to revamp and redesign your system, it's vital that you specifically request that the new system uses...
We know it will take a huge time commitment. We know it will require an inordinate amount of organization and coordination across departments. We know the training for coders and physicians and...
Have you ever had a To-Do list that’s a mile long, and you just don’t know where to start? This implementation timeline is going to feel less like a mile and more like a Marathon. I thought it might...
As if you don’t have enough to worry about between staying on top of CMS guidelines and different reporting rules for various payers, now you face the challenge of learning and assigning ICD-10 codes...
Coders’ clinical knowledge is going to be more critical than ever before. Your ability to glean information from physician documentation and translate these notes into meaningful codes in ICD-10 is...
Have you ever had to plan for a difficult conversation with a friend or loved one? You feel stressed out about having to bring up a painful topic, and you think of every way to broach the subject...
We’ve read the words of caution and heard the urgency of the message: Don’t put off planning for ICD-10. And while there is no one-size-fits-all plan for implementation, there is one tip that...
Over the last couple months, I have tried to get a sense of how far along people are in the ICD-10 planning process. The verdict? While it's definitely on the radar, it seems as though most have not...
Even before you implement ICD-10 in 2013, you will need to make sure that the 5010 electronic code sets are in place at your facility. You must implement the 5010 code set by January 1, 2012. As an...
