Traditionally, the OPPS rulemaking cycle has been the main vehicle for changes to outpatient coding and billing regulations and policy that hospitals need to pay attention to. But increasingly, CMS has been introducing or discussing changes relevant to outpatient hospitals beyond the scope of the OPPS rules.
Effective July 2016, as part of The Joint Commission’s Project REFRESH, the Medical Record Statistics form was retired for hospital accreditation surveys. Is it still important to monitor our medical records for presence, timeliness, legibility (paper or printed), accuracy, authentication, and completeness?
With the challenges and sometimes-abundant negativity everywhere we look, we can forget the privileges of a certification or degree in HIM. Take a moment to remind yourself of the reasons you're proud to be an HIM professional.
An authorization generally applies when an organization wishes to use or disclose a patient’s protected health information for a purpose other than treatment, payment, or healthcare operations, or for legally required purposes. In this case, a patient must sign a HIPAA-compliant authorization form that specifically grants permission to the organization.
