Coding

Coding accuracy in postoperative complications ­impacts a facility's Medicare claims profile, error rate, and physician profiles on hospital watchdog websites that monitor performance.

Coders need to code. This much you know. But with the transition to ICD-10-CM/PCS occurring perhaps as soon as October 1, 2014, they'll need to know a bit more than just raw coding. Now is a good time to review and update current ­coding descriptions, procedures, and job titles to streamline and reengineer your coding team's work flow, says Luisa DiIeso, RHIA, MS, CCS.

Retain. Train. Assess. Investigate. Analyze. HIM professionals have undoubtedly come across action verbs like these since HHS announced on January 15, 2009, the final regulation to replace the ICD-9-CM code set with the more advanced ­ICD-10-CM code set currently used in other nations.

Cheshire Medical Center/Dartmouth-Hitchcock Keene (N.H.), like many others, pays close attention to documentation issues around coding.

Betty B. Bibbins has a message for any healthcare professional-including HIM managers and directors-who struggles to get physicians to document with enough specificity to produce compliant coding and billing: It's your job to tell them how to do it better.

Use this quiz to test coding staff members.

Many HIM directors and coding managers are aware of the decrease in productivity that is anticipated with the implementation of ICD-10.

The additions and revisions to the ICD-10-CM Official Guidelines for Coding and Reporting in 2012 include some new information that coders should be aware of in preparation for ICD-10 implementation.

Here's one wheel that HIM directors and ­managers may not need to reinvent: an ICD-10 educator job description.

It's no longer a mere possibility; the Department of Health and Human Services HHS has confirmed its intent to delay the ICD-10 compliance deadline, according to its latest press release.