The Surgeon General of the United States created this initiative in 2004 as a way for families to share their health histories as they gather around the table, watch the […]

Vaping has become a very hot topic recently, due to the rapid increase of patients showing up at physicians’ offices and ERs with lung injuries.  The Centers for Disease Control […]

Last month, I wrote about accurate coding for aortic valve disease. This month, we’ll look at coding for mitral valve disease. The mitral valve is located in the left side […]

The coders version of the fall equinox has arrived with 2020 ICD-10 changes taking effect as of October 1. While mother nature herself is cooling down and we all get […]

As I noted in my previous blog on the changes to the IQR program, fall brings joy to some and sadness to others. With the fall comes changes to the […]

I find surgical coding to be challenging, but in a good way. I love a good challenge when it’s related to technology, coding or figuring out exactly what procedures a […]

It’s that time of year, coders, when many of us are attending webinars on 2020 Coding updates. For outpatient hospital coders and CDM staff, this will include ICD-10-CM/PCS as well […]

There are four valves in the heart that separate either the heart chambers from each other, or separate blood flow from heart blood flow.  They are, in the left heart, […]

The summer months have passed us by and autumn is here which means flu and cold season is upon us. But wait, we are just beginning to heal from the […]

Classification systems like ICD-10-CM and ICD-10-PCS are all about trade-offs—balancing the ongoing need for new levels of detail with the increasing complexity of the classification. PCS has its own unique […]

Way back in the early days of ICD-10-PCS development, “root operation” was defined as “the objective of the procedure.” As definitions go, “the objective of the procedure” is about a […]

Can you feel change in the air? Not only is fall just around the corner, but so is the CMS change to E/M documentation and payment. By now, most of […]