CMS offers hospitals some breathing room to recover from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in the 2022 IPPS proposed rule. Review proposed updates to complication/comorbidity (CC) and major CC classifications, and a proposed new MS-DRG rate-setting method aimed at alleviating hospital burden.
With the inpatient-only (IPO) list set to be phased out, HIM departments need to prepare for the larger operational and financial impacts. Consider how these changes will affect your organization.
Joe Rivet, Esq., CCS-P, CPC, CEMC, CPMA, CICA, CHRC, CHPC, CHEP, CHC, CICA, CAC, CACO, looks at the implications of a recent OIG brief on how Medicare Advantage organizations could use national provider identifiers (NPI) to monitor for fraud, waste, and abuse.
Laura Evans, CPC, and Julia Kyles, CPC, break down potentially confusing updates to the 2021 E/M guidelines, including new definitions for technical terms and revised guidance for reporting diagnostic laboratory testing with interpretation.
The agency is proposing methods to alleviate burden on hospitals that have been under strain for the past year, while also asking for feedback that may shape future data reporting and rate-setting.
The monetary value of outpatient clinical documentation integrity (CDI) programs is increasing dramatically year after year. Read about steps your facility can take to create and maintain a successful outpatient CDI program.
Monica Tyiska, MBA-PM, RHIA, CCS, CPC, CPMA, CHA, OHCC, CCP-P, offers advice for how organizations can improve hiring practices to ensure candidates from diverse backgrounds that represents the community are brought in.
Hierarchical Condition Categories (HCC) are used to represent risk scores for patients on Medicare Advantage plans. Learn why it’s important for organizations to understand how HCCs are used across settings.
It’s always been easy to show financial return on investment for inpatient CDI endeavors, but the monetary value of outpatient programs is increasing dramatically year after year, making outpatient CDI reviews more attractive to many healthcare organizations.
Effective management of claim edits and denials is a cornerstone of a sound revenue cycle. See how your organization compares to others and what you can do to improve.
Facility E/M coding reflects the volume and intensity of resources utilized by the facility during patient encounters. Joe Rivet, Esq., CCS-P, CPC, CEMC, CHC, CCEP, CHRC, CHPC, CICA, CPMA, CAC, CACO , describes how facilities can create internal guidelines and point systems for determining E/M level section.
Effective management of claim edits and denials is a cornerstone of a sound revenue cycle. See how your organization compares to others and what you can do to improve.
Allen Frady, RN, BSN, CCS, CRC, CCDS, describes steps that coding and clinical documentation integrity managers can take to improve quality metrics and hold staff accountable for reporting errors.
About 1% of children in the U.S. suffer from chronic malnutrition, according to John Hopkin’s Medicine. In this article, Alba Kuqi, MD, CICA, CCS, CDIP, CCDS, CRCR, CSMC, MSHIM, RHIA, breaks down ICD-10-CM coding and documentation requirements for malnutrition.
Regular monitoring and internal auditing are critical to ensure compliance throughout the revenue cycle and protect revenue integrity. Consider the different strategies that can be applied to documentation and chart audits, coding audits, and more.
Let’s face it: Our organizations are under tremendous scrutiny. As the healthcare dollar shrinks, all payers strive to minimize patient care expenses to maintain profit margins.
Strokes are complicated, which is why it is important for inpatient coders to be familiar with the brain’s anatomy and the clinical concepts of a stroke in order to report the most accurate ICD-10-CM codes.
It’s common to see CDI job listings that require applicants to be registered nurses. Often an RN credential is not listed as being “preferred,” but required. There are risks, however, with only seeking candidates from this one background.
Ischemic heart disease has a multifactorial etiology and can be prevented from developing in populations primordially and in individuals at high risk by primary prevention.