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By Donald Voltz, MD for Health IT Outcomes Hardly a day goes by without some new revelation of a U.S. IT mess that seems like an endless round of the old radio show joke contest “Can You Top This” except, increasingly, the joke is on us. From nuclear weapons updated with floppy disks to needless medical…
By Selena Chavis for For The Record As outsourcing models gain a foothold, health care organizations weigh the pros and cons. Outsourced models are increasingly recognized as an attractive and viable option for a number of operational areas within health care organizations. In line with this trend, many organizations are considering the potential of moving either…
Article by Mary Butler. This article was originally published on the Journal of AHIMA website on June 13, 2016 and is republished here with permission. The implementation of ICD-10 did result in a perceived loss of coding productivity, with a minimal dip in coding accuracy, according to a recent coding productivity and accuracy survey. The survey was…
Article by Mary Butler. This article was originally published on the Journal of AHIMA website on June, 2016 and is republished here with permission. Teachers know there are two kinds of students. Student A studies and does their assigned reading throughout the whole semester, earning extra credit where they can. When the final exam rolls up, they’re…
By Laurie M. Johnson, MS, RHIA, CPC-H, FAHIMA for ICD10 monitor The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released the 2017 ICD-10-PCS codes as well as other supporting documentation on Thursday. Before you get excited, the 2017 ICD-10-CM codes have not been released yet. The additional supporting documentation includes the 2017 ICD-10-PCS Official Coding and Reporting…
Article by Mary Butler. This article was originally published on the Journal of AHIMA website on May 19, 2016 and is republished here with permission. October 1, 2016, will mark the end of a one-year “grace period” that allowed unspecified ICD-10-CM codes on certain physician Medicare claims. The grace period was a joint initiative between the Centers…
By Joseph Goedert for Health Data Management Highmark Inc., a Blues plan serving Pennsylvania, Delaware and West Virginia, is giving physicians a financial incentive to increase documentation of diagnostic codes in the electronic health record of patients insured under Medicare Advantage or health insurance exchange programs. Too often, physicians enter a core diagnosis following a…
By Dr. Jon Elion for ChartWise Medical Systems, Inc. The Clinical Documentation Specialist (CDS) looked a little tentative stepping up to the microphone to ask her question. I had just finished a talk where I shared stories about Clinical Documentation Improvement (CDI) from the point of view of a practicing physician. As her question unfolded, the…
By Susan Morse for Healthcare IT News CMS said it plans to add about 1,900 diagnosis codes and 3,651 hospital inpatient procedure codes to the coding system. On Oct. 1, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will add another 5,500 codes to the ICD-10 diagnostic library, officials announced in a March 9 meeting. The addition will…
By Vicky Mahn-DiNicola, RN, MS, CPHQ, and Kim Charland, BA, RHIT, CCS for VBP monitor The healthcare industry is almost five months into ICD-10 implementation. While the conversion seems to have gone rather smoothly, it may be too early in the game to evaluate the impact of how coded data has impacted quality measurement. However, because there…