Doctors and practice administrators are always looking for how to maximize profits. As a coding/billing consultant, chart auditor, and educator, I’m often asked about ways to improve coding. Here are…
A newly issued federal regulation, if allowed to stand, would limit women’s access to care and force doctors to withhold information about all of their health care options. The AMA says…
HHS and the CMS Innovation Center (CMMI) recently announced a new alternative payment model for ambulance providers that aims to improve Medicare emergency transport services. The five-year Emergency Triage, Treat,…
Hospital leaders are concerned that their organization’s clinical documentation and coding processes are vulnerable to errors that could result in lost or decreased revenue, according to a recent survey. Consulting…
In most markets, when a buyer and a seller can't settle on a price, they walk away. Medicine is different. Doctors and insurance companies often sort out who owes what…
Although International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-10-CM) took effect on Oct. 1, 2015, there still are many gaps in the understanding and use of the code set.…
G71.01 is, literally, the code for Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Q93.51 stands for Angelman syndrome, and G40.419 means Dravet syndrome. All three designations became official on Oct. 1, 2018, joining some…
Medical coding is a key component of revenue cycle management. When done efficiently and accurately, it helps ensure hospitals are properly reimbursed for the services they provide. Here are 15…
Nurse practitioner and pharmacy technician are among the most sought-after healthcare jobs this year , according to a salary guide from staffing firm Randstad US. The salary guide examines numbers…
Thirty-eight hospitals filed a lawsuit against HHS over a $380 million reduction in Medicare reimbursement to hospitals under a new outpatient site-neutral payment policy. The lawsuit alleges that HHS Secretary…
Apocryphal story from residency: On morning rounds in the critical care unit, the post-call resident starts to present a complicated patient admitted overnight with chest pain, and after the first…
Whether an individual physician is in a practice that uses telemedicine depends greatly on if that physician is a radiologist or a gastroenterologist. Specialty also significantly affects whether a physician…
Inappropriate outpatient antibiotic prescribing is a primary driver of antimicrobial resistance. Designing and evaluating antibiotic stewardship initiatives requires common measures of inappropriate prescribing that can be applied at the level…
Amazon made headlines this year — especially as it leaped further into the healthcare arena. While there has been speculation about Amazon's entry into the industry for years, announcements by the…
As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes more common in healthcare systems, healthcare professionals must ask the right questions for AI to live up to expectations, according to a viewpoint article published…
The mid-revenue cycle management and clinical documentation improvement market is expected to reach $4.5 billion by 2023, up from $3.1 billion in 2018, at a compound annual growth rate of…