Currently, there are no national guidelines for how facilities should assign evaluation and management (E/M) levels in the emergency department (ED). Under Medicare’s ambulatory payment classification (APC) system, facilities create their own internal guidelines for determining the ED visit level, and each facility must follow its own system to demonstrate compliance.
The focus of FY 2018 code changes is specificity. Payers now expect codes to reflect the exact diagnosis and care given before claims will be reimbursed. Increased granularity in both clinical documentation and coding is critical for revenue cycle success in the year ahead.
Despite opposition from many stakeholders, a bipartisan contingent of Congress, and CMS’ own advisory panel, the agency is moving forward with its plan to drastically cut payments for drugs acquired through the 340B drug discount program, according to the 2018 OPPS final rule, released November 1.
Mastering hierarchical condition categories (HCC) is key to success under new reimbursement methodologies that rely on risk-adjustment, quality, and value metrics such as the Quality Payment Program (QPP). Organizations need to take a close look at their training and audit programs to ensure that valuable information isn’t being left out of documentation—and negatively impacting HCC scores.
CMS now offers an elearning opportunity on the Quality Payment Program (QPP) through the MLN Learning Management System. This course is the fifth in a growing curriculum on the QPP and will offer 0.5 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits.
Root cause analysis of edits and an understanding of the relationship between the chargemaster and HIM/coding must be supported by overarching principles and best practices for edit management. Processes should be built around the timing of edits, applying edits across payers, and denial management.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), one of the Cooperating Parties responsible for the ICD-10-CM codes and guidelines, recently released a 2018 ICD-10-CM Official Guidelines for Coding and Reporting errata. Slight changes were made to the guidelines for diabetes, hypertension, and principal diagnosis selection.
On October 4, CMS issued a notice in the Federal Register containing numerous corrections to the 2018 IPPS final rule, including significant recalculations of MS-DRG relative weights and all budget neutrality factors.
