December 1, 2010
HIM Briefings

An EHR will make all of your problems—well, except for the move to ICD-10—go away, won’t it? Maybe not right away, but eventually?

December 1, 2010
HIM Briefings

You receive a RAC demand letter for repayment. But wait a minute before you pay up—you might want to take a close look to make sure your facility was really in the wrong. Karen Sagen, managed care leader at Bellin Health System in Green Bay, WI, who has worked in revenue cycle management for the past six years, has developed a step-by-step list of things to consider before pulling out your hospital’s checkbook.

December 1, 2010
HIM Briefings

Signs are pointing to the fact that Medicaid RACs might not be the stuff of unicorns or Santa Claus.

December 1, 2010
HIM Briefings

With the end of the year approaching, you, along with many of your HIM director and manager colleagues, may soon be tasked with conducting annual staff evaluations. Chances are it isn’t your favorite task of the year. But it needs to be done.

December 1, 2010
HIM Briefings

Test your staff members’ knowledge of anatomy and physiology with the following quiz.

December 1, 2010
HIM Briefings

In what was perhaps an effort to remind providers to consider medical record retention as they move to EHRs, CMS released MLN Matters SE1022, which addresses medical record retention limits and media formats. 

November 1, 2010
HIM Briefings

It’s the end of the year, and many of us have been on the fast track to EHRs and EDMS installation, so we pause this month for a little levity and to honor all those working so hard behind the scenes. Happy holidays to all the brave health information professionals continuing to blaze the paths of progress in automated medical record documentation!

December 1, 2010
HIM Briefings

Dear colleagues:

As the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act implementation progresses, the quality and outcomes of care face increasing public scrutiny. Policymakers will determine our complication rates and publicize them on the Internet, influencing public perception of our competencies and quality. Don’t believe me? Read in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution about some Georgia hospitals’ “high” pneumonia, heart failure, and myocardial infarction mortality (http://tinyurl.com/GA-mortality). See your own cost efficiency and quality profile on United Healthcare’s website (www.uhc.com) under the “Find a Physician” tab. Where is information to make these determinations obtained? It’s from ICD-9-CM codes assigned by our hospitals based upon documentation. Consequently, we have a vested interest in ensuring that complication codes are submitted accurately.