Distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks are one of the oldest cyberattacks in the books, but they’re still common and can knock out vital services, leaving patients and providers unable to access EHRs and other systems.
On February 2, CMS Revised its Medicare Outpatient Observation Notice (MOON) instructions in MLN Matters 9935, but the document provided little new information, primarily reiterating much of what was already said in the 2017 IPPS final rule.
“CMS went into great detail on delivery of the MOON when the patient is not competent, but completely ignored providing details on the amount of specificity needed in completing the box specifying ‘the reason the patient is outpatient,’ ” says Ronald Hirsch, MD, FACP, CHCQM, vice president of the Regulations and Education Group at R1 Physician Advisory Services in Chicago. “This was one of the least helpful publications I have seen from CMS.”
For case management professionals, keeping up with the MOON revisions has been a challenge.
This week's note from the instructor discusses implementation of the Medicare Outpatient Observation Notice (MOON) and the implementation deadline, which is just a week away.
Coders prepared for 2017 with numerous changes to the Official Coding Guidelines for the ICD-10-CM and the addition of many new codes. Quietly waiting in the wings was the updated CPT® Manual for 2017 with its changes waiting to be discovered.
Q: The new conscious moderate sedation codes (99152-99157) have been assigned status indicator N (no additional payment, payment included in line items with APCs for incidental service) indicators. Please clarify if they are actually bundled into the APC payment.
