Coders will need more information in order to code for fractures in ICD-10-CM. For instance, the physician must document which specific bone is fractured, including which side of the body. They will also need to document whether the patient is seen for an initial or subsequent visit.
Our coding experts answer your questions about unsuccessful foreign body removal, assigning modifier -52 for cancelled procedures, new HCPCS codes for April, reporting vaccine administration codes, new composite codes for 2012.
Spinal conditions can be congenital, pathologic, or traumatic, and they can affect the vertebrae, spinal cord, muscles, nerves, discs, or a combination of the parts of the spine.
Q. Please explain in an understandable way for nontechnical individuals what level of encryption is needed for e-mail to be considered secure as defined in the interim final breach notification rule.
HIPAA requires implementation of technical policies and procedures for electronic information systems that maintain electronic protected health information (ePHI) to allow access only to those persons or software programs that have been granted access rights [§164.312(a)] as specified in the administrative safeguards under access authorization, establishment, and modification [§164.308(a)(4)].
While I was on one of my first consulting engagements in the early 1980s-when the pundits were predicting that everyone would be fully on EMRs no later than 1990-I experienced a rude wake-up lesson: the automating dysfunction "reality check" factor.
