Medicaid rates aren’t keeping pace, chain indicates. Access issues aren’t restricted to Medicare home health, as a recent example shows. Chicago-based personal care services chain Help at Home plans to cease operations in the state of Alabama on Sept. 30, [...]
Big changes are on the way for the 2020 CY. On November 15, 2019, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) finalized its proposal to apply the special rule, previously designated for colonoscopy code families, to nasal endoscopic procedures. [...]
The terms are not interchangeable. If a patient sees your otolaryngologist because of enlarged lymph nodes in her neck, she might be diagnosed with lymphadenopathy or lymphadenitis. The two terms represent different conditions, however, so be sure to choose the [...]
Tip: Check the guidelines to find the location of a particular diagnosis. If you furnish therapy services for home health agencies (HHAs) or for homebound patients, you need to be aware of how to code for the corrective or maintenance [...]
Question: Our cardiology practice is having trouble crosswalking “abnormal chest sounds” from ICD-9 to ICD-10. Are we missing some detail in the ICD-10 manual? New York Subscriber Answer: Despite ICD-10’s increased specificity in some situations, the new diagnosis coding systems actually combines [...]
Arterial bruit and rales now fall under the same code. Given the increased specificity requirements of ICD-10, you may be surprised to learn that ICD-10 combines “other specified” circulatory and respiratory symptoms into a single code. Check out the list [...]
Arterial bruit and rales now fall under the same code. Given the increased specificity requirements of ICD-10, you may be surprised to learn that ICD-10 combines “other specified” circulatory and respiratory symptoms into a single code. Check out the list [...]
Definitive condition doesn’t always rule out symptom code. As a home health coder, you already know that it’s generally not appropriate to list a code for a sign, symptom, or ill-defined condition when you have a definitive diagnosis. But are [...]
Check your note carefully for important details. If you come across notes from the otolaryngologist about “lymphadenopathy,” it means the patient has an abnormal enlargement of lymph nodes. Diagnosis coding under ICD-9 points you to 785.6 (Enlargement of lymph nodes). [...]
The first-stop descriptor isn’t always your best choice. A patient having a history of rapid heart beat, also known as tachycardia, is a special consideration for your anesthesia provider before and during surgery. Be aware that you’ll be turning to [...]
