In 2010 under the Affordable Care Act, CMS linked Medicare payments to healthcare quality, known as value- based purchasing. However, the push for paying for higher-quality medical care goes back a bit further still.Read More »
The value modifier (VM) is Medicare’s physician pay-for-performance program that rewards or penalizes physicians for the quality and cost of care they provide. For calendar year 2015, Medicare began applying the VM to...Read More »
Earlier this year, a group of clinicians from around the globe released new standards for diagnosing sepsis. The Journal of the American Medical Association published the third international consensus definitions, dubbed Sepsis-3, in February.Read More »
Q:I was reviewing a case with one of our CDI specialists this morning. Briefly, the following clinical indicators documented in the chart are elevated cardiac enzymes, shock, and demand ischemia. Cardiology documented “elevated cardiac enzymes in setting of shock representing a...Read More »
Following are some ICD-10-PCS documentation and coding tips for three of the most common (and commonly misunderstood/miscoded) procedures performed via bronchoscopy.Read More »
Microbiology is the study of things that can’t be seen by the naked eye. To the CDI specialist, the term refers to human pathogens and the diseases they can cause. This article discusses some of the fundamentals of...Read More »
Spring is in the air and the daffodils are blooming. We are more than six months into the transition to ICD-10-CM/PCS, and at times it appears there are more questions than answers. The last few weeks have brought us...Read More »
Q: When I try to code an ileostomy takedown with small bowel resection and end-to-end anastomosis, I get to code 0DBB4ZZ. Is this not a repair of the ileum and coded to 0DQB3ZZ? Coding Clinic notes the prior code, not the latter, but “repair” means “restore to previous function...Read More »
