Physicians are constantly reminded that healthcare is undergoing significant change. October 2015 marked one more landmark change: the shift to ICD-10. Many physicians have worried about the transition and likely dreaded the loss of familiar terms, efficiency, or income. How can coders, HIM professionals, or clinical documentation improvement (CDI) specialists engage with physicians to help them now that ICD-10 has been implemented? Let's explore some strategies.
The 2016 OPPS final rule certainly has some provisions that providers won’t be happy about, including a negative payment update for the first time, but CMS did provide some relief on what would surely be an onerous policy.
After several delays, ICD-10 implementation is finally upon us. The healthcare industry has spent years planning, training, and testing?and now the moment we have all been waiting for has arrived. But don't breathe a sigh of relief just yet.
This week’s updates include the October 2015 update of the ASC payment system; postpayment review requirements; and more! Click here to read all of this week’s updates.
Developing a strong denial management program may be one of the best ways to minimize the productivity and financial losses anticipated with the transition to ICD-10. By determining a baseline for denials and proactively identifying denial trends, organizations can efficiently resolve issues and reduce costs. An effective denial management program will help organizations to track, trend, resolve, and ultimately prevent denials.
Having recently returned from teaching the HCPro Accreditation Specialist Boot Camp, I was reminded that our medical staffs continue to have challenges with documentation requirements that have existed at least as long as most of us have been HIM professionals. I thought it was a good time to remind HIM professionals and their medical staff of 12 documentation requirements that are still a major focus during Joint Commission surveys, and persist in being a record completion challenge.
After years of wavering and waffling, ICD-10 was finally set to become a reality on the first of October. The extent to which this new set of codes for medical diagnoses and inpatient hospital procedures will affect you depends largely on how your role is structured, says Stefani Daniels, RN, MSNA, CMAC, ACM, founder and managing partner of Phoenix Medical Management, Inc., in Pompano Beach, Florida.
This week’s updates include: Claims processing Medicare Secondary Payer (MSP) policy and procedures regarding ongoing responsibility for medicals (ORM); Maintenance and update of the temporary hook created to hold OPPS claims that include certain drug HCPCS codes; and more!