Coding tips from the experts
HIM-HIPAA Insider, January 4, 2011
Want to receive articles like this one in your inbox? Subscribe to HIM-HIPAA Insider!
Briefings on Coding Compliance Strategies recently asked advisory board members about the best coding advice they ever received. Consider their sage advice:
- The best advice I ever received is that you should always be able to back up any coding advice you provide with a source authority, such as Coding Clinic or CPT Assistant. Anything else is purely opinion. The biggest challenge facing coders is assigning codes based on documentation. Correct coding is vital in this day and age of RAC and other external audits. —Shannon E. McCall, RHIA, CCS, CCS-P, CPC, CPC-I, CEMC, CCDS
- The best advice I ever received is that the codes should reflect the record, and the record should reflect the codes—nothing more and nothing less. You should be able to look at a set of codes and immediately understand what happened to the patient. —William E. Haik, MD
- The best coding advice I ever received is to always rely on physician documentation, to never assume a physician’s intent, and to look in the Index of Diseases first and then the Table of Diseases when assigning a code. When all else fails, follow the directions. This method of code assignment, while fundamental, has prevented more errors in code assignment than I can ever count. —James S. Kennedy, MD, CCS
Editor’s note: To read more, subscribe to HCPro’s Briefings on Coding Compliance Strategies. Subscribers can find the article in the December issue of their newsletters.
Want to receive articles like this one in your inbox? Subscribe to HIM-HIPAA Insider!
Related Products
Most Popular
- Articles
-
- Note from the instructor: CMS clarifies payment amount to be applied to payment caps and manual review thresholds for outpatient therapy services provided by critical access hosptials
- Five tips for an effective hospital patient safety program
- Note from Hugh
- Recent Recovery Auditor activity
- The week in Medicare updates
- Overnight physicians in ICU show little effect on outcomes
- Latest scores show incremental progress in hospital safety
- Steps to comply with HIPAA 2.0: Revise your policies and procedures
- Q&A: Focused professional practice evaluation (FPPE)
- Maine comes in first in hospital safety
- E-mailed
-
- Note from the instructor: CMS clarifies payment amount to be applied to payment caps and manual review thresholds for outpatient therapy services provided by critical access hosptials
- Q&A: Focused professional practice evaluation (FPPE)
- Five tips for an effective hospital patient safety program
- Overnight physicians in ICU show little effect on outcomes
- CMS recommends use of AHRQ Common Formats for hospital adverse event reporting
- ACDIS/AHIMA brief provides guidance on query best practices
- Maine comes in first in hospital safety
- 2014 IPPS Proposed Rule: CMS focuses on quality measures, inpatient status
- Changes for Outpatient Laboratory Services Rendered in a Critical Access Hospital (CAH)
- ED physicians key to half of hospital admissions
- Searched
