CMS to revamp coding for new medical technology

Published: Mon, 05/06/19

CMS Administrator Seema Verma announced Thursday the agency will overhaul coding regulations that she argues have hindered beneficiary access to new medical technologies. Medical device companies will now be able to apply for a new...

Rare and strange ICD-10 codes

ICD-10 is a set of around 70,000 diagnosis codes. ICD stands for International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems. The verbosity of the name is foreshadowing. Some of the ICD-10 codes are awfully specific, and bizarre.

For example...

Sweeping CC Designation Changes Noted in the CMS 2020 IPPS Proposed Rule

The 2020 Proposed Inpatient Prospective Payment System Rule (IPPS) came out on April 23, 2019, and we need to mobilize. The comments page says we only have until 11:59 pm on May 3, 2019, although the rule itself quotes June 24 as the deadline to provide CMS with comments. It is imperative that...

Judge says AMA is right: Title X gag rule violates medical ethics

“This is madness,” wrote U.S. District Judge Michael McShane in Portland, Oregon, in a scathing rebuke of the Trump administration’s new Title X regulations that includes a gag rule dictating what physicians must and must not say to their patients in the...

Too Much Money, Too Little ROI in Today’s Healthcare

I am pretty darn tired of hearing about the move from volume to value. Do you know what that movement really is? It is an uncontrolled scientific experiment, with unsuspecting people as the participants.

CMS Proposes New Updates to Codes and MS-DRGs

The Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) Proposed Rule for fiscal year (FY) 2020 comes with a great many changes to the ICD-10-CM/PCS classification systems as well as the MS-DRGs. While the IPPS applies to...