Patients who survive sepsis infections face a long battle with cognitive and physical decline, according to research from University of Michigan Health System physicians that will be published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) today, Oct. 27. Theodore "Jack"...Read More »
MS-DRG 432 (cirrhosis and alcoholic hepatitis with MCC) is one of many MS-DRGs slated for RAC validation audits by HealthDataInsights and Connolly Healthcare, two of the four RACs nationwide.
RACs may target this particular MS-DRG for a variety of reasons, says...Read More »
I often wondered how the ICD-9-CM code set would translate to ICD-10-CM/PCS in regards to MS-DRGs. I couldn’t fathom that along with the costly transition to a new code set, CMS would “double whammy” us by implementing a system...Read More »
Just because physicians may document the term excisional debridement it doesn’t mean that coders can automatically code the procedure, said Robert S. Gold, MD, CEO of DCBA, Inc. in Atlanta, during the August 5 audio conference “...Read More »
Operative reports can be a gold mine of information, far surpassing often vague or generalized progress notes, but sometimes this resource is left completely untapped, says Lynne Spryszak, RN,CPC-A, CCDS. Coders know they should review the complete operative report before coding...Read More »
In March 2008, the National Kidney Foundation sent a letter to the National Centers for Health Statistics and asked that the term “acute kidney injury” (AKI) be an optional phrase for assigning...Read More »
Q: Is systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) an inherent part of an infection? For example, when a patient comes in with pneumonia, and clinical indicators are present for SIRS but the physician did not specifically write SIRS, should coders or CDI specialists query physicians?...Read More »
Q:A patient is admitted with an elective colon resection. The physician documents postoperative ileus but then on the day of discharge the notes states: expected postoperative ileus. So do we add the code 997.4 or not?
