Providers know the drill for addressing and operationalizing CMS' annual IPPS and OPPS updates, along with the usual ICD-9-CM and CPT® coding changes. The industry has become used to CMS' timetable for releasing inpatient and outpatient proposed and final rules and knows that it has to be ready to go live with coding, billing, and operational changes October 1 and January 1, respectively.
After several delays, ICD-10 implementation is finally upon us. The healthcare industry has spent years planning, training, and testing?and now the moment we have all been waiting for has arrived. But don't breathe a sigh of relief just yet.
This week’s updates include the October 2015 update of the ASC payment system; postpayment review requirements; and more! Click here to read all of this week’s updates.
Having recently returned from teaching the HCPro Accreditation Specialist Boot Camp, I was reminded that our medical staffs continue to have challenges with documentation requirements that have existed at least as long as most of us have been HIM professionals. I thought it was a good time to remind HIM professionals and their medical staff of 12 documentation requirements that are still a major focus during Joint Commission surveys, and persist in being a record completion challenge.
After years of wavering and waffling, ICD-10 was finally set to become a reality on the first of October. The extent to which this new set of codes for medical diagnoses and inpatient hospital procedures will affect you depends largely on how your role is structured, says Stefani Daniels, RN, MSNA, CMAC, ACM, founder and managing partner of Phoenix Medical Management, Inc., in Pompano Beach, Florida.
Developing a strong denial management program may be one of the best ways to minimize the productivity and financial losses anticipated with the transition to ICD-10. By determining a baseline for denials and proactively identifying denial trends, organizations can efficiently resolve issues and reduce costs. An effective denial management program will help organizations to track, trend, resolve, and ultimately prevent denials.
