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Issue 12, December 21, 2002 - VIEW THE FULL ISSUE

• Bring ancillary coding into the mix

  Many health information management (HIM) departments serve as centralized coding offices. By also...

• Coding Q&A

  The mission of this BCCS monthly supplement is to help you find answers to your urgent coding...

• Hunting those elusive inpatient consult charges

  Hospitals use clerks, chart abstraction, and templatesThe Office of Inspector General (OIG) is...

• Simplify coding to cut down confusion

  Four steps to help coders see the big pictureWhen you’re in the middle of a pile of...

• Syncope: A dizzying coding subject

  By Robert S. Gold, MDAn admission presentation of “syncope” should rarely result in a...

Issue 11, November 21, 2002 - VIEW THE FULL ISSUE

• Coding Q&A

  The mission of this BCCS monthly supplement is to help you find answers to your urgent coding...

• Coding work flow: Smoothing out your process for better productivity and quali

  Your coding staff members’ workflow of can dramatically affect their efficiency...

• Documentation improvement: a large, gray elephant

  by Robert S. Gold, MDEvery blind man has a different way to describe an elephant. I’d like...

• Managing medical necessity

  Changing rules, new ABN require refresher “Pay it right,” is the mantra of the...

• NCCI: Proper use of edits, modifiers essential to good compliance and reimburse

  The National Correct Coding Initiative (NCCI), a Medicare effort rolled out in 1996, allows for...

• No shortage of coding initiatives in 2003 OIG Work Plan

  Old favorites return, with changesThe 2003 Work Plan, released last month by the Office of...

Issue 10, October 21, 2002 - VIEW THE FULL ISSUE

• Establishing coder pay levels

  Establishing coder pay levels

• How to get paid for radiology

  How to get paid for radiology

• Screaming about screening

  Screaming about screening

• Understand and manage your CMI from a coding perspective

  The importance of validating your case-mix index (CMI) from a coding perspective cannot be stressed...

Issue 9, September 21, 2002 - VIEW THE FULL ISSUE

• Are you considering a coder incentive pay program?

  Texas hospital rewards quality over productivityWith the increasing emphasis on accurate...

• Coding Q&A

  The mission of this BCCS monthly supplement is to help you find answers to your urgent coding...

• Get your coders HIPAA-ready

  An August report published by the General Accounting Office says for now, dual code sets are...

• Hints for transactions and code sets compliance

  Two-thirds of organizations are lagging in a key Health Insurance Portability and Accountability...

• Managing Medicare’s 72-hour rule

  How two hospitals handle combining inpatient and outpatient accountsYou know that outpatient...

• Pleural effusions—when to code, when not to, and why

  By Robert S. Gold, MDOn my most recent tour of audits, I found evidence that a little in sight...

Issue 8, August 21, 2002 - VIEW THE FULL ISSUE

• Coding and cash: Setting up a productivity reward plan

  Many hospitals have problems finding and keeping qualified coders. Some facilities are...

• Coding IR procedures: Don’t leave money on the table!

  When it comes to interventional radiology (IR), technology is evolving faster than the...

• Creating a clinical documentation improvement program

  If your piecemeal efforts at documentation improvement haven’t brought about the results you...

• Recovering from a PATH audit

  The federal initiative to verify compliance with the Medicare rules governing payment to...

• Renal disease: Failure or insufficiency?

  by Robert S. Gold, MDEnd-stage renal disease (ESRD) offers clinicians at most facilities...

Issue 7, July 21, 2002 - VIEW THE FULL ISSUE

• CMS announces ICD-9-CM code changes for 2003

  Focus on aftercare, heart failure, OB/GYN conditionsThe Centers for Medicare & Medicaid...

• Consider these items before going to remote coding

  “It’s no secret that there’s a shortage of qualified coders,” says Carole...

• ICD-9-CM codes for 2003

  Editor’s note: The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services published the proposed...

• Insights into coding outpatient breast procedures

  by Robert S. Gold, MDAs an auditor, I have seen confusion regarding the proper coding of the...

• OIG Orange Book released

  More help to focus your compliance effortsA “compendium, of significant, un...

• Preventing mammography claim denials

  Use your hospital’s coding experience to help your clinicIf your hospital has a mammography...

Issue 6, June 21, 2002 - VIEW THE FULL ISSUE

• Coding Q&A

  The mission of this BCCS monthly supplement is to help you find answers to your urgent coding...

• Developing a documentation policy

  Best practices for getting content essential for codingAll coders know that good documentation is...

• Don’t let your encoder lead you in the wrong coding direction

  by Robert S. Gold, MDMost of the time, encoder software is a wonderful adjunct to the difficult...

• End in sight for coder shortage?

  Variety of programs help to attract new coders into the marketMany hospitals continue to struggle...

• Survey: Chargemasters neglected

  Accuracy requires maintenance training, greater concernEditor’s note: The following is based...

Issue 5, May 21, 2002 - VIEW THE FULL ISSUE

• Back to the basics: Coding for pneumonia

  Pneumonia is the fourth most common reason for hospitalization for adults over age 65, and many of...

• New CMS memos toss more changes into the 2002 OPPS rules

  Two memos released by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) in late March add...

• Proposed privacy changes affect consent and marketing

  The proposed changes to the privacy rule under HIPAA brought sighs of relief in health...

• Recognizing respiratory failure

  by Robert S. Gold, MD, and Glenn Krauss, RHIAWith all of the codes now available for...

• Understanding HIV/AIDS coding

  Variety of factors affect accurate codingUnfortunately, with 40 million cases worldwide the...

Issue 4, April 21, 2002 - VIEW THE FULL ISSUE

• Bringing on a new coder

  HIPAA, performance, experience all come into playAs health information management (HIM) takes on a...

• Education v. productivity: What’s your priority?

  by Glenn Krauss, RHIAThe early and mid-1990s brought tremendous change to the field of coding as...

• Clinically Speaking: Some obs observations

  by Robert S. Gold, MDYou can now bill under the new APC 0339, which covers observation services...

• Understanding provider-based status

  Billing, bundling, and complying with the ‘obligations’The implementation of...

Issue 3, March 21, 2002 - VIEW THE FULL ISSUE

• Handling SNF therapy billing

  How codes can help therapists, SNF staffTime-based v. service-based codes . . . progress notes...

• Clinically Speaking: Higher aspirations

  by Robert S. Gold, MDIn the many audits I have done, “aspiration” is a term that has...

• Outpatient services: Which ones generate codes to report?

  Services, procedures you can and should claimWith the ongoing changes regarding APCs...

Issue 2, February 21, 2002 - VIEW THE FULL ISSUE

• Clinically Speaking: An interesting case of varices: How it happened, and how t

  By Robert S. Gold, MDWhen you discharge a patient after an admission for bleeding esophageal...

• Getting it all down—improving physician documentation

  Physician documentation continues to be the bane of coding professionals across the country. In...

• Semiannual Report

  Reimbursement issues related to skilled nursing facilities, physicians at teaching hospitals...

• Uncovering new coders

  Two hospitals establish unique methods to minimize their coding backlogCoding from home, sign-on...

Issue 1, January 21, 2002 - VIEW THE FULL ISSUE

• Clarifications, restructuring set to make CPT more user-friendly

  Clarifications, restructuring set to make CPT more user-friendly

• Ancillary care issues

  Ancillary care issues

• 28 ways to improve coding compliance in 2002

  28 ways to improve coding compliance in 2002

• The finer points of using the new APC for observation services

  The finer points of using the new APC for observation services

• Coding for procedures on paired organs

  inically Speaking: To modify or not to modify?Coding for procedures on paired organsby Robert S...

• Coding for procedures on paired organs.

  Final version, we hope...... ---> Clinically Speaking: To modify or not to modify? Coding...