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By John Lynn for Healthcare IT Today Today I’ve been attending the AHIMA virtual conference. AHIMA deserves an applause for the work they did to put this together and credit to the amazing HIM professionals that seem really engaged with the community. I’ve been to a lot of virtual health IT events lately and most…
Angie Stewart for Becker’s Hospital Review Becker’s ASC Review compiled a timeline of significant medical coding updates that have been proposed or implemented so far this year: January CMS began paying for certain angioplasty and stenting procedures in ASCs on Jan. 1, under its 2020 Medicare Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System and ASC Payment System Final Rule. Here…
By Lisa A. Eramo, MA for For the Record When COVID-19 hit, Joe Naretto, MHA, RHIA, senior director of HIM at Novant Health in Charlotte, North Carolina, was faced with the task of transitioning 80 full-time employees anchored onsite at various corporate locations across the state to remote work arrangements. “Our direction from leadership was:…
From For the Record The American Medical Association (AMA) recently published an update to the CPT code set that includes two code additions for reporting medical services sparked by the public health response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The update to the CPT code set was approved by the CPT Editorial Panel, the independent body convened…
By Alia Paavola for Becker’s Hospital Review The American Medical Association released updates Sept. 1 to its Current Procedural Terminology code set for 2021. Six things to know about the changes: The AMA has made 329 changes to the 2021 CPT code set, including 206 new codes, 54 deletions and 69 revisions. The changes will take effect…
Kat Jercich for Healthcare IT News A study published this past week in JAMA Network Open suggests symptom-specific ICD-10 codes don’t always capture COVID-19-related symptoms. An electronic health record review of 2,201 patients who had been tested for COVID-19 found that ICD-10 codes had low sensitivity and negative predictive value for capturing cough, fever and…
Morgan Haefner for Becker’s Hospital Review In its proposed Physician Fee Schedule for 2021, CMS outlined changes to how office and outpatient evaluation and management visits will be coded. Four things to know: 1. CMS proposed a refinement to clarify the times when prolonged office and outpatient E/M visits can be reported. The department proposed revaluing…
By Angie Stewart for Becker’s Hospital Review CMS published 11 Current Procedural Terminology Category III codes that took effect July 1 in the ASC payment system. The agency also made updated payment rates available for download. The new codes: 0594T. Humerus osteotomy with insertion of an externally controlled intramedullary lengthening device, including intraoperative imaging, initial and subsequent alignment assessments,…
By Alba Kuqi, MD, CICA, CCS, CDIP, CCDS, CRCR, CSMC for ACDIS CDI Blog In their review of the medical record, CDI professionals aim to reconstruct the patient story from admission to discharge by examining, understanding, and synthesizing many puzzle pieces from disparate systems and people. Many patients coming in with COVID-19 related pneumonia are demonstrating…
By Scott E. Rupp for For the Record Take the long view and—despite recent job losses—coding remains a strong career path. So far, the first year of the second decade of the 21st century has brought a lot of uncertainty—to say the least. Through April, more than 30 million people had filed for unemployment as…