CMS has finalized changes to packaged services and E/M CPT® codes for clinic visits with the much-anticipated November 27, 2013 release of the 2014 outpatient prospective payment system (OPPS) final rule.
The intent of quality and safety programs is evaluating and monitoring performance and improving results. Organizations develop annual quality and safety plans with measurable objectives that departments adopt and include as integral to their performance improvement plans.
It's been two years since the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) joined ACDIS to offer the industry physician query instructions in Guidelines for Achieving a Compliant Query Practice, published in February 2013.
In a time when so much attention is focused on issues such as cyber security and the dangers posed from evolving technology, it's easy to forget the HIPAA basics, such as the need for workforce members not to gossip or chitchat about patients with other staff members or people in the community.
Conducting pre-billing audits can be challenging, but when done correctly, it can save organizations from spending time recoding and rebilling claims that payers deny. These audits can be conducted on the front end, in both inpatient and outpatient settings, once records have been coded.
Do your coders ever feel as if they work more hours than most coders? Or perhaps they think their compensation is lower than other coders across the country? Have you ever wondered how your coders compare to the average coder?
CMS designates certain procedures as inpatient-only and identifies them using CPT codes. Hospitals normally only use CPT codes for outpatient coding, so this may be confusing for coders who use ICD-9-CM Volume 3 codes for inpatient procedures. Coders need to know which procedures are on the inpatient-only list to monitor compliance with this rule as they apply inpatient procedure codes.
The ICD-10 delay forced many healthcare organizations to rethink their ICD-10 staffing and implementation plans. Baptist Health System in Birmingham, Alabama, devised a plan to prepare for the one-year delay of ICD-10 by revising its budget and relying on new graduates to fill coder positions.
