When a condition meets reporting guidelines for the inpatient admission, is it appropriate to use documentation dated outside the inpatient admission for coding purposes? Are there specific laws or guidelines that prohibit coding from documentation dated outside the inpatient admission?...Read More »
Conference call
The next quarterly conference call for ACDIS members is scheduled for Thursday, August 18, from 1-2 p.m. ET. ACDIS members should have received their dial-in instructions via e-mail. To access the call, dial the toll-free number, and enter the password/guest...Read More »
In January facilities should expect to receive Recovery Audit Contractors (RAC) demand letters not from the RAC itself but from their Medicare Administrative Contractor (MAC), according to CMS Transmittal 192...Read More »
CMS recently updated Hospital Compare web site data for 30-day mortality rates and 30-day readmissions rates for inpatients admitted with heart attack, heart failure, and pneumonia. The data shows national declines in 30-day mortality rates of 15.9% from 2007 through 2010. (Read more at...Read More »
It started with two courageous coders who knew the query process where they worked at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, Inc., in Baltimore, wasn't quite right--or compliant.
Specifically, the hospital employed a physician who worked in the billing department to review clinical...Read More »
One of the most confusing diagnoses to code and sequence is the acute myocardial infarction (AMI). It is the elephant in the room of circulatory diagnoses—it takes up the most space and can never be ignored. I’m going to try to make some...Read More »
Q: Should queries from different departments be treated and stored differently? Should they be placed in a different location or anything along those lines?
