Talk Ten Tuesdays

Properly managed patient identity queues are the foundation of an effective master person index that minimizes issues and facilitates streamlined care coordination.

Conversely, unresolved identity queue backlogs can have costly implications for patient care, safety, and revenue integrity. It’s a growing problem with a time-consuming, resource-intensive resolution that few HIM departments have the capacity to handle.
During the n...

World Health Day will be observed on Sunday, April 7 but on Tuesday, April 9, 10 a.m. Eastern Time, Talk Ten Tuesday will recognize World Health Day with the special guest appearance of Lorraine Fernandes, immediate past president (2019-2022) of the International Federation of Health Information Management Association (IFHIMA). Today, Fernandes serves as the Communications Chair for IFHIMA.

During the next live broadcast of the popu...

The continued onslaught of cybersecurity attacks is only getting worse.

These attacks have impacted the healthcare system in dramatic fashion, starting with the Change Healthcare payment network being brought down.

Hopefully, everyone – including coders – will be more vigilant and wary of potential attacks and attempts to breach security. The constant development of new approaches and innovative tools means that i...

In a move towards greater specificity, the nation’s healthcare providers have a new ICD-10-CM code category: Code W44.

Having gone into effect October 2023, the new code category (foreign body entering into or through a natural orifice) is seen as enhancing specificity, although Code W45 had already existed for foreign bodies entering through the skin.

During the next live edition of Talk Ten Tuesdays, Gina Yacove...

On the horizon, looming like an ominous thunderhead, is ICD-11. But wait! There’s more: the expanding role of coding in big data, for example. The evolving healthcare IT, and how it will redefine the coding profession. All this and more is coming your way.

That’s why ICD10monitor and Talk Ten Tuesdays invited senior healthcare consultant Angela Comfort, assistant vice president of revenue integrity at Montefiore, to take you on an e...

Code G2211 continues to be a gift disguised as something else.

As many nuances surrounding the code continue to linger, there are still some areas that are not as clear-cut as many healthcare professionals would prefer.

As a refresher, G2211 allows providers (primary care, as well as specialists) to bill for additional cognitive work effort that is not currently captured in the evaluation and management (E&M) ...

How many hospital star ratings does your facility have?

Do you know? If you don’t, you’re not alone.

Apparently, many coders and clinical documentation integrity specialists (CDISs) don’t know. But you should know. That’s why ICD10monitor and Talk Ten Tuesdays have invited Michelle Wieczorek, a registered nurse (RN) and a CDI authority, to explain what the hospital star rating means and how coders and CDISs impact those stars. Wieczo...

During the next live edition of Talk Ten Tuesdays, award-winning author H. Steven Moffic, MD, considered to rank among the world’s most renowned psychiatrists, will report on what he calls “social psychoexemplaries” – the other side of what he reported two weeks ago on social psychopathologies.

Moffic, in his popular daily column in Psychiatric Times, recently mused on the notion of positive social psychiatry, writing “I have come t...

What are the “do’s” and “don’ts” for the safe handling of HCPCS code G2211, used to report payment to physicians and other qualified healthcare providers for the additional work required to adequately care for patients with serious or complex conditions? The code is now payable for the 2024 calendar year (CY).

Not only has the code quickly become enigmatic, in the lexicon of medical record coding, but it also must be handled with ca...

Achieving high-performing revenue cycle management (RCM) begins with understanding where your healthcare organization falls on the RCM Maturity Framework, according to Matt Bridge, senior vice president for AGS Health.

Bridge, who will be the special guest during the next upcoming edition of Talk Ten Tuesdays, says this four-stage framework informs a strategic roadmap designed for optimizing and digitally transforming revenue cycle ...

We are all familiar with DSM-5 and ICD-10 for the classification of various mental disorders. Both, but especially ICD, also cover some of the social conditions needing medical attention that may or may not be connected to the primary disorder or illness. ICD does that in the Z codes. 

However, Z codes are used infrequently. 

Moreover, many social problems harmful to individuals, groups, and countries seem resista...

New Condition Code 92 is here, and it’s effective now. The code outlines the billing requirement for intensive outpatient program services for hospital outpatient departments, critical access hospitals (CAHs), and community mental health centers (CMHCs). 

To explain what you need to know about correctly billing the new Condition Code 92 during the next weekly edition of Talk Ten Tuesdays will be Rose T. Dunn, past president of the A...

Shrouded in controversy, the HCPCS code G2211 was released in 2021, proposed by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to pay physicians and other qualified healthcare providers for the additional work required to adequately care for patients with serious or complex conditions. The code is now payable for calendar year (CY) 2024. 

The journey for this code to become payable has been fraught with obstacles. ...

Last year, healthcare professionals saw many of the rules for evaluation and management (E&M) services that were implemented in 2021 now applied to 2023 E&M codes. This included codes representing services for hospital inpatient care (99221-99223 and 99231-99233), emergency department visits (99281-99285), nursing facility visits (99307-99210), and all consultation services.

How are these changes likely to impact 2024 E&...

Codes for split (or shared) evaluation and management (E&M) services for 2024 have been revised, simplified, and aligned by the American Medical Association (AMA) and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). 

During the next live edition of the long-running Talk Ten Tuesdays broadcast, 3M Senior Consultant Colleen Deighan-Ejak will report on the revised guidelines for determining who performed the substantive portio...

There’s a new code in town.

It’s an add-on code, HCPCS Code G2211. And its effective date is Jan. 1, 2024.

The new code is associated with the continuing focal point for all needed medical services that are part of ongoing care related to a patient’s single, serious condition, or complex condition. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will be implementing this separate add-on payment code to be reported with evaluat...

There are substantial new changes to the minimum data set (MDS) assessment, including how functional abilities and goals are scored, the introduction of tracking of indications for medication use, and the addition of new measures for tracking communication of transfer-of-health information. The recent changes became effective Oct. 1, the start of the government’s fiscal year.

The MDS assessment is a standardized assessment used in s...

MINOCA (myocardial infarction with non-obstructive coronary arteries) and INOCA (ischemia with non-obstructive coronary arteries) pertain generally to coronary artery disease. During the next live edition of the long-running and popular Internet broadcast Talk Ten Tuesdays, Pam Scott will take you on a coding journey into these conditions and the microvasculature of the heart – located downstream from the epicardial vessels and fea...

With thousands of followers on social media, Dr. Robert Oubre, aka “The Doctor of Documentation,” will make his Talk Ten Tuesdays debut on Tuesday, Nov. 7, when he will be the broadcast’s special guest.

Dr. Oubre will be reporting on what documentation considerations should be given when patients are reading physician notes appearing on the monitor screen of the electronic medical record (EMR). He is expected to cite the 2...