by Rebecca Hendren

ACDIS has a number of training and educational materials and it can be hard to decide which program best fits your needs. Our members often ask me to recommend a program for them, so I thought I’d share my short answers to help you figure out which program is best for you.

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The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia denied the Department of Health and Human Services’ claim to delay proceedings in an appeals backlog case until September 30, 2017, according to a civil action notice released by the Court.

The Comprehensive Error Rate Testing (CERT) program received a new assignment this summer. On August 16, CMS awarded CERT Review Contractors work to AdvanceMed, an NCI company, eliminating the existing CERT Documentation Contractors effective October 13, 2016, according to a statement published by CMS.

Physicians often ask why documentation matters to them. Last week, CMS sent out a reminder regarding the importance of complete and accurate documentation related to physician evaluation and management (E/M) codes.

The Cooperating Parties made revisions to the 2017 ICD-10-CM Official Guidelines for Coding and Reporting to explain how bilateral conditions should be reported when the two sides are treated during separate encounters, as well as what codes would be appropriate once one side has been treated. The easiest way to explain how this works is to show an example of the new guidelines. 

Q: What is the meaning of the addition to the 2017 Official Guidelines for Coding and Reporting related to clinical validation? The new statement reads:

“The assignment of the diagnosis code is based upon the provider’s diagnostic statement that the condition exists. The provider’s statement that a condition exists is sufficient. Code assignment is not based on clinical criteria used by the provider to establish the diagnosis.”