By Melissa Varnavas

My family goes all out for St. Patrick’s Day. Dad has green suspenders with day-glow green shot glasses. Mom has a Dr. Seussian green and white top hat. My nephew wears a green plaid fedora. There’s green beer, traditional corned beef and cabbage, the collection of “traditional” Irish folk music playing on cassette tape in the background. All this makes sense—everyone knows how the Greeks celebrate. It doesn’t matter. Everyone gets to claim Irish heritage on St. Patrick’s Day.

Unfortunately, the same isn’t true for ACDIS’ local chapters. If you are a member of ACDIS national, you aren’t automatically enrolled in your local chapter or networking interest group.

There’s only a few more days left to get the early bird discount for the ACDIS Conference, so reserve your seat by Tuesday, March 20.

Should conditions only present in the ED documentation be coded?

While ACDIS advocates for four, in-person local chapter events per year, rotating to various parts of the state, for some chapters, remote meetings are the best option.

Whether you’re new to ACDIS or you’ve been here from the beginning, determining where to look on the website for particular resources may induce some quizzical looks.

CMS hosted an ICD-10 Coordination and Maintenance Committee meeting last week to discuss proposed updates to ICD-10-CM/PCS.

CMS released its PEPPER with statistics from the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2017 for short-term acute care hospitals nationwide.

Q: I often find CHF listed under past medical history. Frequently, the patient also has HTN and CAD, so they’re on medications. When I query for the type of CHF, the providers sometime document “no CHF.” I’ve heard before, though, that CHF is an ongoing diagnosis like COPD. I’m very confused because more than once a provider has said to me that the CHF is in their history and not a current diagnosis. Is this possible or is CHF always an ongoing condition?

The cost for a hospital stay in 2014 involving acute renal failure averaged $19,200, according to the statistical brief published by HCUP.