News
Approximately 25 percent of the population is vaccine-hesitant. I’m going to get real with you: COVID-19 may very well be with us forever. We may be wearing masks or seeing our elders die from new strains of COVID-19 forever – unless enough of us get vaccinated. Herd immunity varies by…
February 2, 2021
Vaccine Coding Amid the Pandemic
By Laurie M. Johnson, MS, RHIA, FAHIMA AHIMA Approved ICD-10-CM/PCS Trainer
Vaccine administration and product codes are expanding. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released updates to the ICD-10-PCS codes on Dec. 1, 2020, while the most recent release of CPT® codes was Jan. 25, 2021. With the release of vaccines, the American Medical Association (AMA) has released frequent…
COVID-19 has added another level of complexity to the revenue cycle. Hospitals and health systems need to update their current revenue cycle processes, becoming more efficient in that arena. Revenue cycle must eliminate inefficient processes in order to drive revenue preservation that translates into optimal net patient revenue. These changes…
January 26, 2021
Alexander v. Azar Reappears; Are Condition Code 44 Appeals Coming Soon?
By Ronald Hirsch, MD
Alexander v. Azar Reappears; Condition Code 44 appeals could be back in court. Author’s Note: Thanks to the Center for Medicare Advocacy for alerting me to this case update. Many of you may recall a class-action lawsuit that was filed in 2011 on behalf of Medicare beneficiaries who were hospitalized…
January 26, 2021
Coagulopathy and Perioperative Hemorrhage and Hematoma (PSI-9)
By Ahmed Abuabdou, M.D., MBA
Document coagulopathy when clinically valid and appropriate, because it reflects the seriousness of the clinical problem at hand. “Perioperative hemorrhage and hematoma,” also known as Patient Safety Indicator (PSI) 9, is one of the PSIs developed by Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). PSIs are intended to provide information…
January 26, 2021
Audio-Only Phone Calls and Virtual Check-Ins: Are You Compliant?
By Terry Fletcher, BS, CPC, CCC, CEMC, CCS, CCS-P, CMC, CMSCS, CMCS, ACS-CA, SCP-CA, QMGC, QMCRC
Phone call codes during the PHE range from 99441 to 99443, and are all based on time. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) made a number of changes that allowed Medicare beneficiaries to access a wider range of telehealth services without having…
January 26, 2021
PSI-9: Can a Postprocedural Hemorrhage or Hematoma be Unavoidable?
By Erica E. Remer, MD, CCDS
The CDI approach to PSIs should be to scrutinize the indicators for the inclusion and exclusion criteria. I believe that patient safety indicators (PSIs) serve a legitimate purpose. They are intended to “prevent potentially avoidable safety events that represent opportunities for improvement in the delivery of care.” This is a…
The vaccination effort has been suboptimal. It is mind-boggling how rapidly they were able to develop effective vaccines against COVID-19. It really was at warp speed. However, vaccines don’t protect people, vaccinations do. The vaccination effort has been suboptimal. In response to an overwhelming feeling of helplessness and depression, I…
