Q: We have a problem getting our physicians to understand what we are querying for (chronic respiratory failure in this instance) when a patient is on home oxygen continuously with documented supplementary oxygen (SpO2) of <90% or arterial blood gas (ABG) with hypoxemia. They tell us...Read More »
The ICD-10 delay forced many healthcare organizations to rethink their ICD-10 staffing and implementation plans. Baptist Health System in Birmingham, Alabama, devised a plan to prepare for the one-year ICD-10 delay by revising its budget and relying on new graduates to fill coder positions....Read More »
At ACDIS we’re seeing more and more departments expand their medical record reviews to focus on quality measures such as patient safety indicators, hospital acquired conditions, and severity of illness and risk of mortality, among other concerns. The more than 1,200 who trekked out to our...Read More »
Of all the Recovery Auditor denials, hospitals reported appealing about 50% with more than a 50% success rate—it’s 50/50 game that hospitals cannot afford to not play, according to the American Hospital Association’s recent RACTrac...Read More »
In the first half of the 2014 fiscal year, the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) reported more than $3 billion in audit recoveries, nearly $3 billion recovered from investigations, and nearly a million in other non-Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) investigations due to efforts...Read More »
As more facilities face the specter of reimbursement losses related to the Readmission Reduction Program, CDI programs may be asked to take a second look at records to help ensure documentation is adequate to fully support the patient’s diagnoses, says Susan Wallace, MEd, RHIA, CCS, CCDS...Read More »
Q: I am the only CDI specialist in our 150-bed facility. I have held the position for three years, and am the first one to do so helping to build the position from the ground up. Being the only CDI, I am on several committees, responsible for continual physician education, continuing...Read More »
Note: This article pertains principally to conditions most often treated in the outpatient area but which may have implications for inpatient conditions.
Mental health disorders are common in the United States, with an estimated 19% of Americans 18 or older...Read More »
