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By Marc Probst, CIO and Vice President, Intermountain Healthcare for (HCI) Healthcare Informatics The federal government recently announced that its mandate for health information technology will move in a different direction. The change represents a vital opportunity that could lead to dramatic improvements in health care delivery. Andy Slavitt, Acting Administrator of the U.S. Centers…
By Cathie Wilde, RHIA, CCS, AHIMA-Approved ICD-10-CM/PCS trainer for ICD10 monitor Monday, 11 January 2016 During the transition to ICD-10, external cause codes – the codes that capture specific details about an injury or health event – received a bad reputation. Many ICD-10 naysayers highlighted what they viewed as the absurdity of them. In an…
By Akanksha Jayanthi and Max Green for Becker’s Health IT & CIO Review January 15, 2016 While CMS Acting Administrator Andy Slavitt’s announcement of the end of meaningful use was met with a collective sigh of relief from the healthcare industry, questions, concerns and expectations regarding the future remain. Though frustrating, many IT leaders do…
By Shannon Barnet for Becker’s Infection Control & Clinical Quality The Leapfrog Group has recognized 98 hospitals as Top Hospitals on its 2015 list, up from 94 hospitals in 2014 and 90 in 2013. The list recognizes organizations that performed at the highest national levels in quality and safety. All total, more than 1,600 hospitals…
By Laurie Desjardins, CPC-I for For The Record Vol. 27 No. 11 P. 6 The Social Security Act defines medical necessity as follows: “Notwithstanding any other provisions of this title, no payment may be made under Part A or Part B for any expenses incurred for items or services, which are not reasonable and necessary for the diagnosis…
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…
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…