Achieving accurate and comprehensive coding of such issues is an imperative. Mental and behavioral disorders have recently had a media spotlight shone on them, and coding of these disorders can sometimes be tricky. Learning the nuances can help achieve accurate coding, which will enhance data necessary to make improvements in…

Las Vegas is best known for its casinos, crowds, and Celine Dion. But now the city can also be recognized for coding and clinical documentation improvement (CDI). Why?The American Association of Professional Coders (AAPC) and HCPro’s Association of Clinical Documentation Improvement Specialists (ACDIS) both convened in Las Vegas during the…

Providers, nurses, clinical care specialists, health information management (HIM) and utilization review professionals, clinical coders, and clinical documentation integrity specialists (CDISs) are all key to ensuring the integrity of coding, which is an essential requirement in denials mitigation. Collaboration is the theme of my presentation at the American Academy of…

I am looking forward to attending the ICD-10 Coordination and Maintenance Committee meeting at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) headquarters this week. Our AAPC members are very anxious to see the changes that will be in the code set this year. As you know, we have had…

In some quarters of healthcare, 2015 was the year of the big malaise. Although former President Jimmy Carter never actually uttered the word in his July 1979 speech about a “crisis of confidence,” his comments ultimately become known as the “malaise speech.”

During recent months I have heard many references to Oct. 1 and ICD-10, but there have been fewer than expected following implementation of the new coding set. I was pleasantly surprised by the quiet. It was a good feeling, a feeling of accomplishment, knowing that all of us in the…

The American Medical Association (AMA) has asked that AAPC be added as a cooperating party in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) committee responsible for development and maintenance of ICD-10 codes, guidelines, and descriptions — the ICD-10 Coordination and Maintenance Committee.

EDITOR’S NOTE – This is the second installment in a two-part series on industry reaction to the U.S. House of Representatives passage of the H.R. 2 bill, from which ICD-10 escaped unscathed. For many ICD-10 stakeholders, the U.S. Senate’s passage of the Medicare reform bill last Tuesday was a fait…

Battered and bruised yet intact, like a dazed boxer entering a late round against an unrelenting challenger, the interim final rule for implementing ICD-10 by October 2015 limped into the federal Office of Management and Budget (OMB) last Friday.