Recovery Auditor medical record requests and automated and complex denials all fell slightly in the first quarter of 2016, as did the average number of medical record requests per hospital, which decreased slightly since the fourth quarter of 2015, according to the latest RACTrac report...Read More »
CMS issued a final rule last week to revamp the way it pays for tests under the Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule (CLFS). Now starting January 1, 2018, CMS will base CLFS payments on the weighted median amount paid by private payers for the same services. Providers are hopeful that these new...Read More »
Q: The coders at my facility have stated auto linking congestive heart failure (CHF), hypertension (HTN), and chronic kidney disease (CKD) to the combination code without any documentation of CHF “due to” HTN. There is no documentation of hypertensive heart disease anywhere in...Read More »
Editor’s Note: Over the coming weeks on the ACDIS Blog, we’ll introduce a few of this year’s speakers who are heading to the podium for the...Read More »
The MS-DRG 884, organic disturbances and mental retardation, received a request for a title change, in the 2017 IPPS proposed rule released by CMS, to organic disturbances and intellectual disability to...Read More »
Q: What exactly are DRG 067 and 068; nonspecific cerebrovascular accident (CVA) and pre-cerebral occlusion without infarct? How is it different than transient ischemic attack (TIA) or CVA?
A: Diagnostic related groups (DRGs) assist us in classifying...Read More »
Q: Do you have any information about mortality rate, observed/expected, or can you direct me to where I might get additional information to better understand this metric?
A: The mortality index is defined by the number of patient deaths in a hospital...Read More »
