When I look back on 30 years of involvement with HIM, it's hard to believe that I was also passionate about another profession at one time. But I actually came to my career as a coder by way of my associate's degree in veterinary science.
Physician advisors (PA) are an important ally for case managers at many organizations when it comes to ensuring proper patient status. But one organization has greatly expanded the role of PAs to include performance improvement and as a result has seen improvements in everything from readmissions to length of stay.
Hospitals were struggling this summer to comply with the Notice of Observation Treatment and Implication for Care Eligibility (NOTICE) Act, which was signed by President Barack Obama August 6, requiring hospitals to provide a verbal and written notice of outpatient status to any patient in observation who has been in the hospital for more than 24 hours.
CMS proposes aligning its conditional packaging logic with how it applies packaging to labs, while also proposing to delete the much-maligned modifier -L1 for separately payable laboratory tests in 2017.
While the 2017 OPPS proposed rule includes a variety of tweaks and augmentations to existing regulations, its biggest impact is likely to come from its proposal to implement Section 603 provisions of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 regarding off-campus, provider-based departments (PBD) and move toward more site-neutral payment policies.
CMS released the 2017 OPPS proposed rule on July 5 without much fanfare. On July 14, the Federal Register version was posted, and upon initial review, it seems rather short at 186 pages.
