Hospital Payment Information Management Archives – May 1, 2003
May 1, 2003
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Severity adjustment tools enhance documentation
Health care providers have used severity adjustment tools at the state level since the 1980s. From both a cost-accounting and a planning standpoint, these statistical tools have helped providers define patterns of illness, establish accepted treatment protocols, and cut costs. The next step, says Darice Grzybowski, MA, RHIA, FAHIMA, is increasing the use of severity adjustment tools. -
Improving productivity starts with education
Who doesnt want to do things better? Reducing errors and completing more charts means increasing both the speed and the amount of reimbursement. But improving productivity is easier said than done. -
Kaiser makes move to automated records
One day soon in a Kaiser Permanente facility near you, Kaiser patients will no longer be able to take a peek in the chart that the nurse leaves behind on the desk. No, its not because of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA); Kaiser is going all digital, all the time. -
Nurse documentation can boost your bottom line
If the nursing documentation in your emergency department is lacking key information, your facility may not be getting all the reimbursement it deserves. More important, inadequate nursing documentation can open the door for costly legal action down the road. -
Use this checklist when you document
You should include the following items in your medical record documentation, according to Candace E. Shaeffer, RN, MBA, vice president of coding/quality management at Lynx Medical Systems in Bellevue, WA: -
New strategies boost reimbursement under APCs
This is the first part of a two-part series on improving emergency department reimbursement under ambulatory payment classifications. -
Retention: The pound of cure for recruiters
If the cost of replacing a typical employee is up to twice the annual salary of that worker, why dont organizations spend more time and resources trying to retain their employees? -
News Briefs
Physicians are practicing more defensive medicine; Most appeals deal with coverage, not necessity; Bill to help hospitals fund immigrant care. -
DRG Coding Advisor: Medicare focuses on reducing billing errors
Medicare trustees released their annual report in mid-March, and the picture they painted was not pretty. Costs are projected to triple over the next 75 years, and if the gap between revenues and expenditures doesnt narrow, at worst the fund will be depleted; at best, benefits will be significantly reduced.