The Medicare and Medicaid EHR incentive programs are well under way at this point. The federal Medicare incentive program began issuing payments earlier this year, and many states have already done so as well for the Medicaid program.
It's almost that time of year again, when holidays abound and people's lives tend to get even more hectic than normal. As a manager, it means planning holiday parties, dealing with requests for time off, and a myriad of other tasks.
Rose T. Dunn, MBA, RHIA, CPA, FACHE, FHFMA, took on a new role in June: She became the interim CEO of AHIMA. In the past she has also served twice on the AHIMA board of directors, in addition to a term as president of the organization. Dunn was kind enough to take a few minutes from her busy schedule to speak with us about her role and the future of AHIMA, and to offer some advice for those in the field.
As we begin to close out the year, it seems to be a good time to reflect on some of the challenging standards hospitals faced in Joint Commission surveys during 2011.
CMS finalized a documentation and coding adjustment (DCA) of -2% for fiscal year (FY) 2012, according to the inpatient prospective payment system (IPPS) final rule. CMS originally proposed a year-over-year reduction of 0.5% in payments to acute care hospitals, including a DCA of -3.15%. However, CMS finalized a cut of 2%, a decrease from 2.9% in FY 2011, which translates to $1.13 billion more in hospital payments in FY 2012 than hospitals received the previous year.
No industry or profession is immune to the budget crunch. Unfortunately, many coding departments fall into a routine and neglect to assess their costs and look for innovative ways to save money.
