Perilous Compliance Challenges Facing Today’s New Coders

Talk Ten Tuesdays

Never before has the responsibility of an organization to provide clear, facility-specific guidelines and in-depth training for coders been more apparent than it is today – especially now with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) poised to conduct diagnosis-related group (DRG) validation audits. Reporting our lead story during this edition of Talk Ten Tuesdays will be Cari Greenwood who will discuss how your team should intensify training –- particularly when it comes to assigning correct codes for high-frequency, problem-prone, and high-cost diagnoses.

Other segments to be featured on the broadcast include:

• News Desk: Mary A. Inman, partner at Constantine Cannon’s London office, reports on the expected dismissal of the $188.1 million False Claims Act lawsuit filed by Med Analytics, LLC against Providence Health, now Providence St. Joseph, for allegedly upcoding various diagnoses.
  
• RegWatch: Leading healthcare technology consultant Stanley Nachimson returns with his popular segment, RegWatch, through which he reports on the latest regulatory changes coming out of Washington, D.C.
  
• Tuesday Focus: The Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (ODPHP), on behalf of the Federal Interagency Steering Committee for Adverse Drug Events, recently released its final version of the National Action Plan for Adverse Drug Event Prevention (ADE Action Plan). Reporting on this developing story will be Ronald Hirsch, MD, vice president of R1 Physician Advisory Services.
  
• CDI Report: ICD10monitor contributor Glenn Krauss continues his reporting on clinical documentation integrity, but this time, he will focus on the recent decision by HHS OIG to conduct DRG validation audits.
  
• TalkBack: Talk Ten Tuesdays co-host Erica Remer, MD, FACEP, CCDS, founder and president of Erica Remer, MD, Inc., reports on an issue that recently caught her attention during her popular TalkBack segment.