Although only about 25% of hospitals currently outsource their CDI efforts, roughly 70% plan to partner with a private firm in one form or another by the third quarter of 2015, according to a July 29 release from Black Book...Read More »
The 2015 IPPS final rule, released August 4, focuses on quality initiatives and includes no ICD-9-CM diagnosis or procedure code changes. However, CMS did finalize some MS-DRG changes for Fiscal Year 2015.Read More »
October 1, 2015, will be the new ICD-10 implementation date, according to the final rule, Administrative Simplification: Change to the Compliance Date for the International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision (ICD–10–CM and ICD-10-PCS) Medical Data Code Set, published...Read More »
A significant portion of updates in the Fiscal Year 2015 IPPS final rule pertain to the Hospital Value-Based Purchasing (VBP) Program, the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program, and the Hospital-Acquired Condition (HAC) Reduction Program.Read More »
Safety net hospitals—those with a Medicare Disproportionate Share patient percentage in the highest quartile—have a higher risk of reimbursement reductions associated with various Value-Based Purchasing (VBP) initiatives such as the Hospital Readmission Reduction Program (HRRP), according to a...Read More »
Due to the continued delay in awarding new Recovery Auditor (RA) contracts, CMS made modifications to the current RA contracts allowing them to restart some reviews. Most will be done on an automated basis, but a limited number will be complex reviews of topics selected by CMS. In the meantime,...Read More »
Have you started dual coding for ICD-9 and ICD-10? Two facilities shared their experiences during a July AHA webinar. The first task is to determine what dual coding means for your facility, said Nelly Leon-Chisen, RHIA, director of coding and classification for the AHA. Are you coding...Read More »
