Q. We are a claims repricer and maintain a secure claims department. When outside vendors, such as building maintenance people, enter the secure area, are they required to sign a logbook indicating what time and date they entered and exited the claims department?
When two bombs went off eight seconds apart at the finish line of the Boston Marathon, there were many emergency plans in place. "There's an emergency disaster plan in place for both the city and the marathon itself," says Peter Moran, RN, BSN, MSN, CCM, emergency room case manager at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in Boston. In addition, each hospital has its own emergency process in place.
The AMA revamped coding for molecular pathology beginning in 2012 and continuing in the 2013 CPT ® Manual. Now CMS is trying to determine how to pay for those tests and the agency wants to hear from providers.
CMS is reexamining inpatient criteria because it has seen a significant increase in the number of patients spending more than 24 hours in observation. Providers are worried that a Recovery Auditor will deny a short inpatient stay for lack of medical necessity and recoup payment years later. So instead, some facilities place patients in observation for longer time periods.
