A new separate payment is available under the FY 2025 IPPS for small, independent hospitals who choose to establish and maintain access to buffer stocks of essential medicines. Learn why this initiative was created and the potential impacts on future drug shortages.
Review a recent OIG audit which found that Medicare payments for inpatient claims assigned with MS-DRGs 207 and 870 did not fully comply with Medicare requirements, resulting in $79.4 million being improperly paid to hospitals.
Review a retrospective cohort study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association that found new Alzheimer disease and related dementia diagnoses were more common after falls compared with other forms of traumatic injury.
CMS recently announced updates to the January 2025 Integrated Outpatient Code Editor, including new HCPCS codes and changes to a handful of status indicators.
To comply with a summer court order, the FY 2025 Hospital Inpatient Prospective Payment System was revised to reduce payments for low wage hospitals. Review the updated policy to understand why these adjustments were implemented and what hospitals can expect going forward.
Review a cross-sectional study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association that revealed people experiencing homelessness were significantly less likely to receive inpatient systemic therapy or procedures despite having a higher prevalence of more aggressive cancers and longer lengths of stay.
The American Medical Association recently announced new codes, deletions, and revisions included in the 2025 CPT code set. Explore these notable updates to the code set.
Review a recent OIG audit which found that without strengthening program safeguards, CMS and its contractors may not be able to prevent or detect improper payments for short inpatient stays or recover overpayments for claims that do not comply with Medicare requirements.
According to a recent analysis, healthcare organizations are submitting more prior authorization requests to Medicare Advantage plans and more of those requests are being denied. Review the analysis’ findings to be more aware of prior authorization processes and CMS’ efforts to streamline them.
A cohort study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that the detection of incident stroke events is moderately accurate when using ICD-10-CM codes in Medicare claims and very accurate in ruling out non-stroke cases.
Patients who self-reported housing instability often didn’t have the correct ICD-10-CM codes documented in their record, according to a recent study. Review the results of the study and be more aware of the importance of properly documenting housing insecurity to ensure appropriate housing and medical services are delivered.
CMS released the FY 2025 IPPS final rule on August 1, which seeks to address key social determinants of health and strengthen emergency preparedness. This rule updates Medicare payments and policies for discharges from inpatient hospitals beginning October 1, 2024.
CMS’ proposed rule to revise the Medicare hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System for calendar year 2025 has been released. Review some of the proposals that could directly impact your organization.
CMS’ fiscal year 2025 IPPS proposed rule and fact sheet proposes to upgrade certain codes describing social determinants of health (SDOH) to better capture the effect of housing instability on beneficiaries.
A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that administration of piperacillin-tazobactam among patients with suspected sepsis was associated with a higher mortality rate and increased duration of organ dysfunction compared with cefepime administration.
CMS recently released an updated MLN fact sheet reminding providers about documentation requirements for requests from its Comprehensive Error Rate Testing (CERT) program.
CMS recently published the fiscal year 2025 ICD-10-PCS code set and guidelines. Although CMS made no changes to the guidelines, the update includes 371 new codes, 61 deleted codes, and three new tables.
CMS updated its July 2024 HCPCS Quarterly update file in May with a total of 70 new HCPCS codes, 11 discontinued codes, and 32 revised codes. All code changes will be implemented July 1.
A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that four popular pretest risk assessment models for evaluating risk of hospital-acquired venous thromboembolism in inpatients did “not perform particularly well.”
A Journal of the American Medical Association study found that ICD-10-CM influenza codes accurately represented cases of positive diagnoses in pediatric patients, but their sensitivity was modest.
The Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) emergency use authorization for Pemgarda, a pre-exposure COVID-19 prophylaxis, has led to the release of HCPCS Level II codes for the drug and its administration.
Despite the expansion of codes that came with the transition from ICD-9 to ICD-10-CM, the majority of codes for inflammatory arthritis were not frequently used in 2015 through 2021, researchers found.
CMS published a summary of its first quarter 2024 HCPCS Level II code update application decisions. There were 48 additions, two code definition revisions, and seven discontinuations.
CMS’ fiscal year 2025 IPPS proposed rule and fact sheet, published April 10, includes proposals for a 2.6% payment increase, a new bundled payment program, code updates, and other policy changes.
CMS proposed hundreds of ICD-10-CM code changes in the 2025 IPPS proposed rule, published April 10, including 252 new codes, 13 revised codes, 36 invalidated codes.
The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) published a study that found that high-flow nasal cannula protocols were associated with a 6.1% reduction in ICU admissions among children.
CMS published its HCPCS Quarterly Update in March, which heralded the sum of 94 HCPCS Level II code additions, discontinuations, and definition revisions. The changes became effective April 1.
The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) published a study in March found that “foot and ankle care was associated with an 11% lower likelihood of death…and a 9% lower likelihood of major amputation (above or below knee).”
CMS will be holding its next ICD-10 Coordination and Maintenance Committee meeting March 19-20. The committee will deliberate applications for new ICD-10-PCS and ICD-10-CM code assignments. If approved, the codes will become effective October 1, 2024.
CMS retroactively added two new CPT codes for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine administration. The codes affect services rendered on or after October 6, 2023.
A recent study has suggested that COVID-19 patients who have a history of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) are at an increased risk of sepsis, shock, and acute kidney injury.
A JAMA study published in January found that patients with the highest risk for severe COVID-19 infection received outpatient therapy less often than those with the least risk.
The CDC posted its updated 2024 ICD-10-CM guidelines in January that include a sequencing update for sepsis due to postprocedural infection. The guidelines will take effect April 1.
CMS published a summary of its fourth quarter 2023 HCPCS Level II code update application decisions, including 36 additions, four revisions, and 18 deletions.
The AHA responded with potential provider concerns to the government’s recent request for information (RFI) as it prepares for the potential transition from ICD-10 to ICD-11 for morbidity coding.
CMS posted its 2024 Therapy Code List and Dispositions on December 28. This list indicates whether therapy services, as distinguished by HCPCS Level II and CPT codes, are recognized under CMS as “sometimes therapy” or “always therapy.”
Michael Lonski, Ph.D., a licensed psychologist, was sentenced to 27 months of imprisonment and three years of supervised release for conducting $2.6 million in Medicare and Medicaid fraud, the Department of Justice announced December 19.
A recent ProPublica article found that nearly 30,000 Medicare patients may have received atherectomy procedures prematurely or unnecessarily, resulting in millions of dollars in reimbursement.
CMS released its January 2024 HCPCS Level II code update December 7, outlining 344 new and 74 discontinued codes. The code changes will become effective January 1, 2024.
U.S. government civil healthcare fraud settlements exceeded $1.6 billion in 2022, according to the recently released 2022 Health Care Fraud and Abuse Control Program Annual Report.
The Journal of the American Medical Association recently released a study that analyzed social determinants of health and other conditions associated with lower-limb amputation in the U.S.’ most populated areas. The study found that several factors corresponded with an increased risk of amputation.
A recent Office of Inspector General audit of inpatient and outpatient Medicare claims estimated that nearly 20% of cases including codes for abuse or neglect were not reported to law enforcement.
Children diagnosed with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) had a readmission rate of 27.8% in the first year after discharge, with half of those readmissions occurring within two months, according to a recent study in JAMA Network Open.
