Stay Connected: MaHIMA’s Weekly News Vehicle Co-authors: Jackie Judd, CCS, Director of Communications, MaHIMA; Susan Pepple, Co-Editor Connect/Stay Connected; Lori McNeil Tolley, RHIA, M.ED.; Ellen Butler Vaitkunas, RHIA; Marianne Garfi, RHIA, CCS-P; Donna Volpe Casey, RHIA; Zainab Shuaib, M.D., M.P.H., CDIP; Srdjan Perisic, MM, CPC, CRC, OHCC; Joy P. Rose, MSA, RHIA, CCS, CHPS; Martha Hamel, CHPC, Co-Editor Connect/Stay Connected [...]
Diagnostic vs. Therapeutic Excisions By Cathie Wilde, RHIA, CCS – Director of Coding Services, Medical Record Associates, LLC When a pathological specimen is removed during an operative procedure and is sent to the lab, is the procedure considered diagnostic and/or therapeutic? Is excisional biopsy therapeutic or diagnostic? The most important factor in determining the procedure as diagnostic and/or therapeutic is to [...]
Linda Sanches Linda Sanches is a Senior Advisor for Health Information Privacy in the Office for Civil Rights within the federal Department of Health and Human Services. She leads the HIPAA privacy and security audit program mandated by the HITECH Act. She also created and implemented other HITECH related efforts, such as the training of state attorneys general on HIPAA [...]
Jeffrey Gold After working as an employed physician for 8 years, Dr. Gold began to get increasingly frustrated with the bureaucracy of medicine that resulted in less of his time spent on caring for his patients. In 2014, Dr. Gold began to hear about a movement in the Primary Care world of medicine called Direct Primary Care (DPC). This model [...]
What is the code for hemorrhage occurred in the surgical bed (deeper than the skin and subcutaneous tissue) of a total thyroidectomy? According to Coding Clinic response, assign code E89.810 Postprocedural hemorrhage of an endocrine system organ or structure following an endocrine system procedure. Happy coding! Irene Fung, RN, CCS, AHIMA Approved ICD-10 CM/PCS Trainer Manager QA/Education Clinical Documentation Coding [...]
Crystal Vraibel Crystal is senior at Fisher College, pursuing her Bachelor’s degree in Health Information Management. She plans to graduate in March 2018. We asked Crystal what drew her to HIM as an area of study and as a future career? “I needed to make a career change and have always wanted to go into some aspect of health care. [...]
THE ABC'S OF HCC'S Now that diagnosis coding is much more critical, both for immediate fee-for-service reimbursement and over the course of 2017 as Medicare uses that diagnosis data for Risk Adjustment under MIPS. So, do you know the ABC's of HCC's? Here are some key factoids I thought I would share with you.
Using Data to Improve Patient Access and Your Bottom Line By Kevin J. Pawl, MS, FACMPE Senior Director of Patient Access, Boston Children's Hospital At Boston Children’s Hospital we have long been known for the care we provide, world-renown providers, top academic departments and innovative care models. When a patient enters our system, this high level of care is expected. [...]
Lori Beaudry, CCS-P Vice President, CFR Lori Beaudry started out her career as a medical assistant for a primary care physician but she did not stay there long. Lori explains: “I was fascinated by the coding and billing aspect of the medical field which ultimately brought me to the HIM side of the business.” Lori Beaudry, the Vice President [...]
