This month's Q&A answers to readers' questions on collecting payment, contacting physicians, overhearing medical examinations in the emergency department, and discussing the health of adult children.
Q: Are we required to keep copies of a former patient’s records after transferring the records to the patient’s new doctor? If we do, are we allowed to charge for copies now that the patient is no longer “our” patient?
Q: We have a patient admitted with a history of chronic heart failure (CHF) and end-stage renal disease (ESRD) who was admitted with volume overload due to acute kidney injury (AKI) and dialysis noncompliance. The AKI and volume overload resolved with hemodialysis treatment. How should we report this in ICD-10-CM?
Q: Where can the policy be found that shows records can be destroyed as soon as they are scanned into the electronic medical record (EMR)? Would a hospital presume that it is acceptable to destroy paper records after they are scanned into the EMR if electronic storage media is legally acceptable for medical records in its state?
