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Home Health & Hospice Week

Coding:

Look For Low Vision To Code Case Mix Correctly

Published on Wed Sep 23, 2009

Tip: Start by answering M0390. When you're in the market for more case mix points, look no further than a category you may have been blind to: 369.xx (Blindness and low vision). While these codes were rare in home care before January 2008, patients have always qualified for them. However, thanks to the revised prospective payment system, case mix coding has gotten more complicated and requires better comorbidity coding -- meaning you can turn to categories like 369.xx to pin down the most accurate case mix. Warning: Now that several codes in the 369.xx category qualify for case mix points, they show up much more frequently in the top six diagnosis slots in M0230/M0240, says Judy Adams, president and CEO of Adams Home Care Consulting in Chapel Hill, N.C. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is sure to notice this sudden change, so be certain the patient qualifies before you [...]
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