Self-administered drugs present a significant issue for coders, especially when considering how they may or may not be covered by Medicare Part B. In many instances, payers may consider a drug to be self-administered in some circumstances but not in others. As a result, coders must pay special attention to how these drugs are used within their setting.
Q We're struggling with nursing documentation of stop times for IV infusions (e.g., piggybacks and hydration). The nurses also inconsistently document a patient's return to the unit from diagnostics. We know that CMS now allows us to use average times for common services, and we're interested in considering this approach at my organization. Can you share additional specifics?
Coders can find the largest number of new codes in the pathology and laboratory section of the 2012 CPT® Manual. The AMA added a total of 103 new codes, 101 of which denote Tier 1 and Tier 2 molecular path-ology procedures.
In total, the AMA added 60 new codes throughout the surgery section of the 2012 CPT® Manual, 18 of which appear in the cardiovascular and respiratory system subsections. The AMA also revised 86 codes and deleted 48 codes in the surgery section.
The death of an infant at an Illinois hospital made national news in June 2011. Genesis Burkett passed away due to a series of errors tied to human use of the hospital's EHR systems. (The infant was born prematurely to parents who had been trying to conceive for years, and had thrived after months in neonatal intensive care until he was killed by a massive sodium chloride overdose. (You can read more about the case in the Chicago Tribune at http://tinyurl.com/8xtdqrp.)
