Medicare Compliance & Reimbursement

Confirm documentation before you report the new morbid obesity codes. Come October 1, you must be ready to report the new and changed 2011 ICD-9 codes. Now that CMS has finalized the update, you can get a jump start on the changes. Add Detail to Fluid Overload Starting in October, you'll need to code with a higher degree of specificity when it comes to reporting fluid overload. 2010's 276.6 (Fluid overload) category will expand to include the following: 276.61 -- Transfusion associated circulatory overload 276.69 -- Other fluid overload. Transfusion-associated circulatory overload (TACO), a heart-related condition, "is a circulatory overload following transfusion of blood or blood components," said Mikhail Menis, PharmD, MS, of the FDA CBER, who presented the proposal for this change at the September 2009 ICD-9-CM Coordination and Maintenance Committee meeting. The patient may experience "acute respiratory distress, increased blood pressure, pulmonary edema secondary to congestive heart failure, positive fluid [...]