Question: We are having a debate in our practice over what actually constitutes protected health information (PHI) — and what de-identification means. One person even suggested that a URL for a website is considered PHI under HIPAA. Is that true? [...]
Hint: Unspecified and unstageable pressure ulcers are not the same. The 2021 ICD-10-CM Official Guidelines for Coding and Reporting offer helpful insights on the rules you should follow for reporting various diagnosis codes, including those for pressure ulcers. If you [...]
Watchdog agency audits three HHAs based on Medicare payment error rate. How would you like to face a $2.9 million Medicare repayment based on 10 claims? That, and worse, are facing three home health agencies recently audited by the HHS [...]
This year’s RAI Manual arrived a few weeks early — dive in now so you’re adequately prepared when it becomes effective this October. The long-anticipated Long-Term Care Facility Resident Assessment Instrument 3.0 User’s Manual Version 1.16 is finally here, leaving [...]
Chiros to receive documentation reeducation and more. The Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) of 2015 is here now. What’s more, the new legislation has laid out provisions that impact doctors of chiropractic as outlined in section 514, “Oversight [...]
Question: How should we code when a diabetic patient has debridement or amputation to treat a wound with osteomyelitis? For example, we are caring for a patient who has type II diabetes. He had a stage IV pressure ulcer on his [...]
Check these claims to make sure you can back up your patients’ therapy visits and OASIS scores. Some of your high-dollar episodes may also bring you high-level scrutiny. HH Medicare Administrative Contractor Palmetto GBA has announced "service-specific prepay probe reviews" [...]
Question: The diagnosis for one of the patients admitted to our facility was anasarca with pleural effusion. I was going to code the diagnosis with 514 but do I also need to code the pleural effusion with a separate code? [...]
With the privacy rule finalized and the security regs on their way, covered entities are scrambling to get their ducks in a row. But did you know that setting up role-based access controls could help you kill two of these [...]
Hint: Choose from different codes for edema due to a cardiac cause. Frequently, your pulmonologist will rule out a cardiac condition causing pulmonary edema -- you will need to be thoroughly aware of how to report a diagnosis of unspecified edema [...]
