MDS Alert

Medicare Compliance:

Brush Up On The RAI Manual Rules For Excluding IV Medications

Know when to forego coding at P1ac.

Not all IV medications are created equal in the MDS coding world. And if you consistently code IV meds that Medicare says you shouldn't, your facility could end up with payment recoupments or even a "pattern" indicating fraud and abuse.

Perform this check: If you've checked IV meds (P1ac) --and also chemotherapy or dialysis in P1--take a closer look. The RAI manual says you can't code IV meds administered solely during those treatments, notes Marilyn Mines, RN, BC, director of clinical services for FR&R Healthcare Consulting in Deerfield, IL.

More coding "no no's": You also cannot capture IV meds when given solely in conjunction with a surgical or diagnostic procedure or in the immediate post-operative or post-procedure recovery period, according to the RAI manual. That means you couldn't code an IV contrast material given as part of an imaging procedure.

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