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Demographic & Patient History (M0175-M0290) |
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The key to minimizing your agency’s adverse events is to track patients’ progress while focusing on specific M0 items. As an added bonus you’ll identify the areas in which your...
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Coding cerebrovascular accidents (CVAs) has long been tricky for home health agencies. First, home health coders were directed to use 436. Then it was 434. And now we’re using 438....
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While chronic kidney disease (CKD; Category 585) is a fairly common diagnosis among home health patients, home health coders typically should not be assigning acute kidney failure (AKF) codes (Category...
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After reading our March issue, Alicia Cave, RHIT, health information manager and privacy officer for the Visiting Nurse Association of Southwestern Indiana, asked why resolved case-mix diagnoses must be listed...
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CMS’ new coding guidance – Attachment D – could mean an increase in your clinicians’“coding” responsibilities, and has intensified the importance of their documentation....
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The following summarize the basic ground rules for reporting diagnosis codes in M0240 and in M0246, as gleaned from the recently released Attachment D....
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CMS has decided to bring down the curtain on efforts to recoup M0175-related overpayments, which actually have been stalled for nearly two years by successful agency appeals....
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While V15.88, History of fall, has long been approved for use in both M0230 and M0240, if you rarely list it in the primary spot, you’re in good company. Code...
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Agencies should pay attention to overlooked OASIS questions, such as M0220, because their answers could affect acute-care hospitalization scores....
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The CMS push to collect millions in M0175 overpayments from home health agencies appears to have snagged on provider-favorable appeals decisions by its administrative law judges and by its Medicare...
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Correctly sequence all of a patient’s medical conditions, and you’ll reduce the use of V codes while earning maximum case-mix points and the appropriate risk adjustment for the associated outcomes....
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M0246 has not been an easy concept to grasp, or line item to fill out, since its start Jan. 1, and a recent CMS communication on the use of M0246,...
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CMS recently said that it’s OK to place a non-case mix code in M0246 when the underlying condition is known because it helps with risk adjustment. But beware: placing a...
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Agencies expecting to provide therapy overestimate the number of visits in 47% of episodes, according to benchmark vendor Outcome Concept Systems’ first reports of actual therapy visits made under the...
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Now is the time to implement best practices for tracking and billing your supplies – PPS 2008 has tied payment to non-routine supplies....
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In January, CMS replaced OASIS item M0245 with M0246. Aside from allowing additional spots to place case-mix codes, the basic rules have stayed the same:Only use M0246 when a V...
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To ensure that you get paid the correct amount come Jan. 1, CMS will allow home health agencies to enter a “dummy” date temporarily for claims completed during the last...
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Does your HHA have better clinical outcomes than its competitors? If so, it could mean that its financial results also are better....
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Can you change M0230 or M0240 during the time between the original plan of care and the next certification? The OASIS Certificate and Competency Board (OCCB) recently asked CMS this...
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Your future M0175 (inpatient facility) worries may be over if CMS finalizes as-is its PPS proposals....
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Your future M0175 (inpatient facility) worries may be over if CMS finalizes as-is its proposed rule modifying home health PPS....
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Your responses to M0175 (inpatient facility) and M0610 (behaviors demonstrated at least once per week) might not determine your PPS payments much longer. ...
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Patient Scenario: A 60-year-old female sustained a 10 cm laceration to her upper, right arm, which resulted when she broke through a door pane and fell. She also complained of...
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Be sure to check “yes” in M0200 at the ROC and discharge when you discontinue physical therapy during the episode. ...
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The OASIS changes can be overwhelming to provide to staff all at one time. That's why quality staff at Franciscan Home Care and Hospice Care created a quick reference guide...
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CMS says it may change the term “heavy smoking” to “smoking” in the OASIS question M0290 (high risk factors) – but not for two years....
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Patient scenario: Patient had a diskectomy three months ago and now has numbness in her right foot and burning pain in her lower back and right leg. She has been...
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CMS accounting for M0175 errors finally has taken off -- into a cloud of confusion....
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If your HHA wants to check on patients' M0175-related discharges from acute-care hospitals or rehab facilities that could reduce or increase Medicare episode payments, CMS provided a way last year...
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Nearly one quarter of home health patients have urinary incontinence as a pre-existing condition (M0220) when they enter home care....
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Quick quiz: A new patient who has Parkinson’s disease was referred to your agency for physical and occupational therapy. Your start-of-care clinician enters V57.1 as the primary diagnosis in M0230,...
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Home health clinicians as a group are more accurately predicting their patients' life expectancies....
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The wait is nearly over for home health agencies anxious to see the effects of Medicare claim adjustments based on answers to OASIS M0175, the “inpatient facility” question....
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You can't stage a pressure ulcer unless you can see it....
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Clinicians may struggle during start-of-care OASIS assessments when trying to determine how functional their patients were 14 days prior to their home health admission. But CMS is considering making their...
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There's a trick to securing the most accurate answer to M0180 (most recent inpatient discharge date within last 14 days): Don't ask the patient....
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If home health's prospective payment system won't count more than one case-mix diagnosis code per assessment, why does the OASIS payment question, M0245, give you two slots in which to...
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Home health clinicians struggle most with OASIS ICD-9 coding questionsClinicians have the most trouble when answering OASIS question M0230 (primary diagnosis), M0240 (secondary diagnosis) and M0245 (payment diagnosis), a recent...
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A nurse was sent into a home to provide care to a patient recovering from gastric bypass surgery. The hospital sent the patient home with a pain relieving device embedded...
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Got a question about a CPH article or other coding issue? Send it to econnor@decisionhealth.com. We'll reprint it here and respond with expert coding advice...
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It's OK to repeat yourself in certain situations, for example, when singing rounds or designing computer systems. And repeating yourself is even required when coding certain diabetic conditions....
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CPH last month advised you to remember that when coding, "once a decubitus ulcer, always a decubitus ulcer." Since then, CMS has issued guidelines that put a chink in that...
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One key question helps clinicians improve accuracy on the OASIS question M0280 (life expectancy), thus steering clear of an adverse event for unexpected death....
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Q: Your patient's foot was amputated due to circulatory problems, and home health is providing dressing changes. Would you use the ICD-9 CM code 892.0 (open wound of foot except...
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If your home health agency wants to use a newly published CMS guide to check on acute or rehab hospital answers to M0175 that could reduce or increase Medicare episode...
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It's risky business to predict home health diagnoses from what the patient was tagged with in the hospital An examination of 250,000 start-of-care assessments compiled by benchmark vendor Outcome Concept...
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Q: How would you code a patient being seen with an ulcer as a result of carcinoma?...
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If you’re trying to predict home health diagnoses from what the patient was tagged with in the hospital, STOP!...
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Clinicians could use some coaching on how to answer OASIS M0245 (payment diagnosis), a new study for ...hhl indicates....
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