Modifier -JW is used to describe drug amounts that are discarded and not administered to any patient. This does not reduce the payment for the drugs, so this is an informational modifier, but it is a mandatory modifier.
The Office of Inspector General (OIG) will be taking a closer look at payments for inpatient claims subject to CMS’ post-acute transfer policy, according to a recent update to the OIG work plan.
Increased access to urgent care centers (UCC) may decrease the number of patients who seek treatment for low-acuity conditions in hospital emergency departments (ED), according to findings from a retrospective study recently published in the American Journal of Emergency Medicine.
Establishing an outpatient CDI program can have substantial benefits. Recently, an outpatient CDI review project demonstrated there were many documentation improvement opportunities at a large family practice/internal medicine physician clinic.
Findings from a computational health informatics study recently published in Medical Care Research and Review suggest that provider connectedness is associated with reduced 30-day readmission rates for heart failure patients following hospital discharge.
Experts Richard Pinson, MD, FACP, CCS, and Cynthia Tang, RHIA, CCS review the recently published “Global Leadership Initiative on Malnutrition (GLIM) Criteria for the Diagnosis of Malnutrition: A Consensus Report From the Global Clinical Nutrition Community” and help coders apply this criteria in ICD-10-CM.
The 2019 CPT code update includes 19 code additions and three revisions to the cardiovascular section of the CPT Manual. These changes reflect advances in surgical treatment for cardiovascular conditions such as heart failure and aortic stenosis.
CMS released Transmittal 4188 on December 28, adding instructions to Chapter 23 of the Medicare Claims Processing Manual for the accurate interpretation of claim edits and assignment of modifiers -59 (distinct procedural service) and -91 (repeat clinical diagnostic laboratory test) on Medicare Part B claims.
