A recent study indicates that more Medicare patients are being assigned to observation services than in the past, and this decision may be costing these patients money, according to the July issue of Health Affairs.
Retain. Train. Assess. Investigate. Analyze. HIM professionals have undoubtedly come across action verbs like these since HHS announced on January 15, 2009, the final regulation to replace the ICD-9-CM code set with the more advanced ICD-10-CM code set currently used in other nations.
Many coders can quickly quote the code for diabetes mellitus in ICD-9-CM (code 250.00) when the physician only documents diabetes mellitus. But what will coders need in the documentation for diabetes mellitus in ICD-10-CM? Dissect the differences in coding for diabetes mellitus in ICD-9-CM and ICD-10-CM.
CMS is proposing two major changes as part of the 2013 OPPS proposed rule, released July 6. One has to do with how CMS proposes to calculate APC relative weights; the other addresses the reimbursement level for separately payable drugs and biologicals without pass-through status.
