Hospitals in particular face daunting challenges for patient safety and quality of care. A Nov. 20 report released by The Joint Commission for the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) offers guiding principles and actions to prepare hospitals for the inevitable. Read more »

Come Jan. 1, 2009, medical personnel are not allowed to have a bad day. That’s when new standards introduced by The Joint Commission for the Accreditation of Health Organizations (JCAHO) in a July 9 sentinel event alert are slated to go into effect.

“Intimidating and disruptive behaviors include overt actions such as verbal outbursts and physical threats, as well as passive activities such as refusing to perform assigned tasks or quietly exhibiting uncooperative attitudes during routine activities,” the commission said. “All intimidating and disruptive behaviors are unprofessional and should not be tolerated.” Read more »

An inventory of quality measures used for reporting, payment, or quality improvement by its agencies and operating divisions was recently announced by Health and Human Services (HHS).

The HHS measures inventory is available on the National Quality Measures Clearinghouse, an Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), Web site. Read more »

On Dec. 1, bloggers from around the world went online to write about and promote awareness of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/aquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). The day marked the 20th annual World AIDS Day. Read more »

Health care professionals have an additional choice for treating patients with moderate to severe acute pain. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Tapentadol hydrochloride, according to a Nov. 24 press release. Read more »

Health and Human Services (HHS) has issued a final rule for Patient Safety Organizations (PSO) that will go into effect Jan. 19, 2009. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has already listed 15 PSOs.

The final rule addresses concerns regarding how providers may efficiently collect and analyze patient safety event information with privilege and confidentiality protections while complying with existing reporting requirements seeking similar information. Read more »

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has added two new quality measures to the Dialysis Facility Compare consumer Web site to show the percentage of patients at any given dialysis facility whose hemoglobin levels are reportedly unsafe.

Previously, the Web site only showed the percentage of patients in a facility whose hematocrit levels were at 33 percent or more (or hemoglobin levels of 11 g/dL or more). Read more »

New CPT® codes that go into effect Jan. 1, 2009 will allow your lab to code more accurately for advancing diagnostic tests, according to the Coding Institute’s Pathology/Lab Coding Alert (Vol. 9, No. 11).

Let’s say, for example, that a patient presents with chest pain but shows a normal EKG and tropinin-negative test results. The physician orders serum myloperoxidase (MPO). You would have to settle for a generic code, such as 83516 Immunoassay for analyte other than infectious agent antibody or infectious agent antogen, qualitative or semiquantitative; multiple step method to describe the test. In 2009, however, you’ll code this sort of test with total clarity using CPT® code 83876 Myeloperoxidase [MPO]. Read more »

Getting paid for unlisted procedure codes can be tricky, especially if a procedure is experimental or investigational.

“It’s not unheard of to get paid for unlisted procedures, but it’s not always easy,” says Joanne Mehmert, CPC, CCS-P, in Kansas City, Mo. “The insurance company has its own definition of medical necessity.” Read more »

Working with physicians to specify what constitutes as an emergency, and correctly coding emergency room visits with +99140 Anesthesia complicated by emergency conditions (specify) (List separately in addition to code for primary anesthesia procedure) is enough to frazzle any coder’s nerves. 

Anesthesia & Pain Management Coding Alert (Vol. 10, No. 10) takes a closer look at 99140, and clarifies how you should (or shouldn’t) use it with qualifying circumstances (QC).