For calendar years (CYs) 2010 and 2011, Medicare paid hospitals $711 million for claims that included a diagnosis code for Kwashiorkor, a form of severe protein malnutrition typically found in third-world countries that is extremely rare in the United States.Read More »
There are a lot of changes coming with ICD-10—including an update to the exam for the Certified Clinical Documentation Specialist (CCDS) credential. Beginning in mid-January 2016, the exam will include ICD-10-related questions.Read More »
Romerl “Cris” Gumayagay, CCDS, CCS, CDIP, knows a thing or two about having passion for CDI. The foreign medical graduate (FMG) has been involved in CDI for more than five years and holds a CDI position at the University of Southern California, Keck Medicine, in Los Angeles.Read More »
Q: What are other facilities doing to avoid denials on the back end and code the chart accurately the first time with a clinically supported diagnosis?
A: You bring up an excellent point. If the clinical indicators do not seem to support the diagnosis, it is the responsibility of the CDI/...Read More »
Q: Can CDI programs use information on ambulance forms or trip tickets to abstract from if the information is pulled into or reiterated in the ED or history and physical (H&P) documentation? Our staff doesn’t want to miss criteria that would diminish our ability to substantiate the...Read More »
The annual incidence of an initial venous thromboembolism (VTE) event, either a pulmonary embolus (PE) or a deep vein thrombosis (DVT), is approximately 0.1% in the United States, with the highest incidence among the elderly and a...Read More »
Many of the questions and answers supplied in AHA Coding Clinic for ICD-10-CM/PCS, Second Quarter
2015, surrounded the use of the correct root operation. Per ICD-10-PCS Official Guideline for Coding and
Reporting, “[i]t is the coder...Read More »
Basically, HCCs predict an individual beneficiary’s healthcare expenditures relative to the average beneficiary. CMS uses the scores to adjust payments based on the health status and demographic characteristics of a beneficiary.Read More »
