Editor's note: In honor of the holidays, we asked our "MRB Talk" members to send us their HIM holiday wishes. From funny to serious, we hope that each one of your wishes is answered for you in the coming year. And to all of our readers, we hope you have a safe and happy holiday season and a wonderful new year. Now, read on to find out what your colleagues are wishing for this holiday season, and, as always, if you aren't a member of the listserv but would like to be, feel free to e-mail me at akraynak@hcpro.com.
It's almost that time of year again, when holidays abound and people's lives tend to get even more hectic than normal. As a manager, it means planning holiday parties, dealing with requests for time off, and a myriad of other tasks.
The Medicare and Medicaid EHR incentive programs are well under way at this point. The federal Medicare incentive program began issuing payments earlier this year, and many states have already done so as well for the Medicaid program.
When patients are set to be discharged from the hospital, they have the right to appeal that discharge decision. Hospitals have a duty to inform patients that they have this right by providing them with a required notification mandated by CMS called the Important Message from Medicare (IM).
Many case managers face the dilemma of how to cover their own assignments. When asked to cover the duties of colleagues who are ill or on vacation, the dilemmas only increase. Yet covering for another case manager is often necessary to make sure the care coordination needs of the patients and their families are met. The situation often results in both positive and negative outcomes that the team must be prepared to handle.
Making discharge arrangements for patients leaving the facility can be challenging under the best of circumstances. But when a patient is a traveler, someone who will head back to another state or country, the difficulty factor increases exponentially.
