Call us toll-free: 800-878-7828 — Monday - Friday — 8AM - 5PM EST
By Mike Miliard for Healthcare IT News Hospital IT departments have a lot on their proverbial plates these days, as they work to help their health systems manage the minutia of meaningful use attestations, deal with the nuts and bolts of the ICD-10 changeover (so far, so good!) and strengthen defenses against data security threats that…
Article by Karen Diop, RN, CDIP. This article was originally published on the Journal of AHIMA website in the “Coding Notes” section in November 2015 and is republished here with permission. Change has become a constant in healthcare. With the introduction of electronic health record (EHR) systems, core measures, the “meaningful use” EHR Incentive Program, value-based purchasing, and the…
By Tom Sullivan for Healthcare IT News Ransomware attacks and tools are on the rise and perhaps more so than has been widely understood thus far. The gist: Hackers crack into a network via malicious URLs or malware, find data they can encrypt with relatively low-cost tools, and then demand either money or Bitcoins to return it.…
By Dr. Jon Elion for ChartWise Medical Systems, Inc. In my blog entry of July 8, 2015, I summarized some of the history of the first international classification of diseases, a process that started in 1853 and was finally approved in 1893. While this was not officially called “ICD-1”, it was in fact the first international…
By Susan Chapman for For The Record Whether delivered face to face or remotely, requests are more apt to receive a response if they’re delivered within a physician’s workflow. There are different ways in which physicians are queried to ensure patient health records are complete. Most facilities employ onsite clinical documentation improvement (CDI) teams that are…
By Joseph Conn for Modern Healthcare It’s been mostly smooth sailing with a few rough spots one month into the national conversion to the International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision, of diagnostic and procedural codes, better known as ICD-10. The CMS issued a statement Thursday saying Medicare fee-for-service claims “are processing normally,” with 4.6 million…
Written by Ayla Ellison for Becker’s Hospital CFO CMS released its final 2016 Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System and Ambulatory Surgical Center Payment System rule on Friday, which finalizes CMS’ proposal to alter its controversial two-midnight rule and implements previously announced modifications to CMS’ medical review strategy. Here are 10 things to know about the…
Written by Shannon Barnet for Becker’s Infection Control & Clinical Quality The number of hospitals that received an “F” safety grade from Leapfrog increased from 20 in the spring to 34 this fall. The Hospital Safety Score assigns letter grades — A, B, C, D and F — to more than 2,500 hospitals in the…
Sharing documentation best practices is a win-win for healthcare stakeholders. By Bonnie Bakal for Advanced Healthcare for Health Information Professionals One of my all-time favorite song lyrics is from Josh Groban’s You Raise Me Up and goes: “I am strong when I am on your shoulders, You raise me up to more than I can…
Written by John Smithwick for Healthcare Intelligence Network Getting patients diagnosed correctly and treated appropriately depends on providers gathering both quantitative data, which is typically structured, and qualitative data, which is typically unstructured. When comparing both types of data, it’s more challenging to manage and derive value from unstructured data. Structured data is that which…