We were expecting October 1, 2015, to be the new ICD-10 compliance date and CMS made it official with the release of a final rule, Administrative Simplification: Change to the Compliance Date for the...
Ah, the joys of camping. The fresh air, the beautiful scenery, the friendly forest creatures. Sounds like a great way to escape from the urban jungle and the daily grind. Nice in theory, not so nice...
Inpatient coders and clinical documentation improvement specialists are very familiar with CCs and MCCs. After all, they help determine the MS-DRG assignment for a particular inpatient stay. ICD-10-...
Put on your deerstalker hat and grab your magnifying glass. It’s time to do our best Sherlock Holmes impersonation. We just received a chart from Dr. Doolittle and we need to code the procedure...
Julie comes into the Fix ‘Em Up Clinic with a seriously broken arm. Her son Jay left his toy fire engine on the stairs and Julie tripped over it. She threw her arms out to brace her fall. And then...
Have you started dual coding for ICD-9 and ICD-10? Two facilities shared their experiences today during the AHA’s webinar, Lessons Learned on Dual Coding–A Provider’s View. The first thing you need...
It turns out that not all eponyms are going away in ICD-10-PCS. The Alphabetic Index still includes an entry for a Roux-en-Y operation. The entry directs you to see bypass of the gastrointestinal...
Holly spent the weekend hanging out at the beach, enjoying the sun. The sand was so warm that she slipped off her shoes to stroll near the water. And disturbed a crab in the process. The crustacean,...
A lot of people are starting their Fourth of July celebrations early. At least it seems that way at the Fix ‘Em Up Clinic. Shannon took her dog Damian to the park to watch some fireworks last night...
Go to your local bookstore, pick up a copy of Gray’s Anatomy (the book, not the television show), and flip though the illustrations. Alternately, you can Google “Gray’s anatomy illustrations.” They...
CMS and Obamacare have increasingly been moving healthcare toward a more value-based model. They want to pay physicians for how well they treat patients and not by the volume of services they provide...
More healthcare providers would have been ready for an October 1, 2014 ICD-10 implementation date than people may have realized, according to a survey by Edifecs, eHealth Initiative (eHI) and AHIMA...
Composers lead pretty safe lives, right? They compose music, conduct the symphony, and hang out at post-show parties. And we’re not talking rock star parties. Sometimes, though, that job isn’t so...
Poor Finn is having a rough week. It started out well as he spent Sunday with his folks and older brother at an amusement park being as amused as a 6-month-old can be. Things started going downhill...
Jeff comes in to the Fix ‘Em Up Clinic complaining of shortness of breath, a persistent cough, tightness in his chest, and frequent respiratory infections. He tells Nurse Nosey that he smokes a pack...
Dodge ball is not a game for wimps or the uncoordinated. Even master ball dodgers can end up in the Fix ‘Em Up Clinic. Steve engaged in a spirited game of dodge ball over the weekend, which resulted...
What do you get when you combine a full moon and Friday the 13th? Some really odd injuries at the Fix ‘Em Up Clinic. Fortunately, we here at the clinic suffer from neither paraskevidekatriaphobia (...
I recently spoke with Barbara Hinkle-Azzara, RHIA , vice president of HIM operations for HRS Coding in Baltimore about preparing for ICD-10 and, more specifically, about the anticipated MS-DRG...
A patient comes into the ED following an automobile accident. The physician documents that the patient has an open, displaced fracture of the lateral condyle of the right tibia. The physician also...
We all know that ICD-10 codes will require more complete documentation. We’ve been telling physicians that, but maybe we’re not explaining it well or correctly. What makes documentation better? It’s...
If you’ve glanced through the ICD-10-CM Manual, you likely noticed all of the codes for fractures, strains, and dislocations. We’re going to have a lot more choices in ICD-10-CM, which means we’re...
Ah, Memorial Day, the unofficial start of summer. And the day after Memorial Day is the unofficial start of summer injury season at Fix ’Em Up Clinic. Jackee took advantage of the long weekend by...
Recently I have seen many articles casting a negative outlook on ICD-10. They scare everyone into believing that added specificity to the codes will create more work for everyone, especially the...
I’m going to pick on our friends from the Association of Clinical Documentation Improvement Specialists for one more day because I’ve heard some really good stories about the doings in Las Vegas last...
Our friends from the Association of Clinical Documentation Improvement Specialists came back from the desert with some minor maladies. Apparently everything that happens in Vegas doesn’t stay in...
We’re still waiting for CMS to release the interim final rule on the new ICD-10 implementation date, but we did get some news on the ICD-10 front this week. The Office of Budget and Management...
Today I will focus on the chronological transition to ICD-10 readiness. My intent is to dispel myths and compare real-world experience in the ICD-10 planning space with the commonly disseminated...
Our good friends at the Association of Clinical Documentation Improvement Specialists (ACDIS) have descended on Sin City for the seventh annual ACDIS conference. And while what happens in Vegas might...
One day after an apparent stealth announcement of the new ICD-10 compliance date, CMS confirmed October 1, 2015, as the new implementation date. According to a CMS statement: On April 1, 2014, the...
We may have a new ICD-10 implementation date…or maybe not. In the IPPS proposed rule , released April 30, CMS states on page 648, “The ICD-10-CM/PCS transition is scheduled to take place on October 1...
During AHIMA’s two-day ICD-10-CM/PCS and Computer-Assisted Coding Summit April 22-23, AHIMA ran some real-time polls with attendees texting in their responses. The results of the polls provide some...
Some body parts just need a little reinforcement. Or maybe a little augmentation. Use root operation Supplement (third character U) to report procedures that involve putting in or on biological or...
Rose Dunn, MBA, RHIA, CPA, CHPS, FACHE, FAHIMA, chief operating officer of First Class Solutions, started the second day of the AHIMA ICD-10 and CAC Summit with a rundown of ways HIM professionals...
The first day of AHIMA’s ICD-10 and CAC Summit is in the books and although attendance is down this year, the speakers have provided some good food for thought. Here are some briefs highlights from...
Don’t blame the AMA for the most recent ICD-10 delay, says Steven Stack, MD , immediate past chair of the AMA Board of Trustees. Stack gave the keynote address at the AHIMA ICD-10 and CAC Summit in...
Coding for pressure ulcers in ICD-10-CM requires precise documentation of the ulcer’s location, which really shouldn’t surprise anyone. ICD-10-CM includes increased specificity for almost every...
Here comes Peter Cottontail, hopping down the bunny trail—and right into a gopher hole. Stupid rodents. Poor Peter limped his way into the Fix ‘Em Up Clinic to see Dr. Hop A. Long for an initial...
Don’t look now, but mumps are making a comeback . How do we code mumps in ICD-10-CM? Pretty much the same way we code them in ICD-9-CM. The codes just look a little different. In ICD-10-CM, we can...
Sometimes a physician just needs to take a look around a body part and see what’s what. If the physician’s sole objective is to examine a body part, either visually or manually, report the procedure...
We know we're facing at least a one-year delay in ICD-10 implementation. What you with that time? will directly affect how prepared you are for the eventual ICD-10 implementation. Here are some...
What a wild 12 days. On March 25, we were all preparing for the six-month-to-implementation milestone April 1. Some people were looking forward to that milestone more than others, but we had a plan...
If you code for pregnant patients and newborns, you may occasionally wonder which record to code a condition on. Is it something you code for the mother or for her offspring? ICD-10-CM divides the...
The Senate passed HR 4302 designed to patch the Sustainable Growth Rate that included a provision to delay ICD-10 implementation until at least October 1, 2015. The bill, approved by the House in a...
The fate of the October 1, 2014 ICD-10 implementation date will remain in limbo until Monday. The House of Representatives passed HR 4302 Thursday as a one-year fix to the Sustainable Growth Rate (...
The House of Representatives passed HR 4302 today using a controversial surprise voice vote, bringing another ICD-10 delay closer to reality. HR 4302 focuses on patching the Sustainable Growth Rate (...
CMS may be committed to an ICD-10 implementation date of October 1, 2014, but Congress may think otherwise. House of Representatives bill H.R. 4015 is designed to patch the Sustainable Growth Rate...
The codes for complications of pregnancy, childbirth, and the puerperium appear in Chapter 11 in ICD-9-CM. They move to Chapter 15 in ICD-10-CM. But you will find some more significant changes than...
Holidays are always interesting times here at the Fix ‘Em Up Clinic. We get to see some of the most interesting cases. First up for St. Patrick’s Day is Sean, who at 8 years old thought it would be...
Is this a dagger I see before me? Why, yes, Caesar, that is a dagger aimed at your heart. And your head and just about everywhere else. Servilius Casca got in the first shot, hitting Caesar in the...
In ICD-9-CM, we have one base code for gestational diabetes: 648.8x (abnormal glucose tolerance). We need a fifth digit to specify the episode of care: 0, unspecified as to episode of care or not...
