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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 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 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…
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…
By Akanksha Jayanthi for Becker’s Health IT & CIO Review After three delays and much industry opposition, the United States’ healthcare industry transitioned Oct. 1 to ICD-10, catching up with the latest version of the international classification of diseases codes. The transition has been compared to the Y2K scare at the turn of the millennium,…
By Niam Yaraghi for Brookings While patients may hugely benefit from having access to their own medical records, many hospitals and physicians are still very reluctant to provide patients with a copy of their records. Although taxpayers have partly paid for the majority of hospitals to adopt electronic health records systems, which reduce the cost…
By Carrie Pallardy for Health IT & CIO Review Data breaches are costly events – with an average price tag of $3.8 million each according to a Ponemon Institute report – and healthcare is a prime target. The bulk of data breach media coverage focuses on the aftermath – the cost and pursuant lawsuits –…