The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Service’s (CMS) HCC risk adjustment model looks at previous data to determine the patient cost for the following year. Health plans are paid a higher patient per month amount for those patients that have chronic or severe illnesses. That is where ICD-10-CM coding comes into play.
What is ICD-10-CM coding?
ICD-10 is the 10th edition of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD). This is a medical classification list established by the World Health Organization (WHO). This list contains codes for signs, and symptoms, diseases, complaints, abnormal findings, social circumstances, and external causes of injury or diseases.
ICD-10-CM is the US clinical modification of the World Health Organization’s ICD-10. It is designed for classifying and denoting diseases in US healthcare facilities.
Why is coding important?
ICD-10 contains over 14,000 codes that can be broken into sub-classifications of 16,000 codes. ICD-10-CM are diagnostic codes that are extremely important. They offer accurate and up to date procedure codes to improve health care costs. In addition, these codes more specifically capture public health diseases and hold significant importance in research and development. These codes are important because they reduce medication error, improve treatment options, improve payment systems, and lower treatment and claim costs.
How can you ensure diagnosis codes are captured appropriately?
So, how can you ensure that your diagnosis codes are captured correctly? There are a few steps that you can take to ensure accuracy, including:
- Performing annual audits to identify patients with unreported chronic conditions
- Confirm documentation is exclusive to date of service
- Record precise and detailed documentation
- Double-check assessment, impressions, and treatment plans
- Ensure that attached diagnosis code is most specific available
If you need more help with diagnosis codes, HCC Coders can help.
For help wit2h HCC Coding, contact HCC Coders today!
Let’s face it, HCC coding is often no small feat. It can be difficult to verify the information and ensure that diagnosis codes are captured appropriately. However, it is absolutely essential to capture codes appropriately to ensure patients receive proper care and that you obtain the maximum reimbursement possible. If you need help with HCC coding, the good news is that HCC Coders is here to help. Backed by the Datafied name, with over 2024 years of experience, you can count on HCC Coders to get the job done in a quality and timely manner. Our experienced team of coders is qualified and ready to handle whatever coding tasks you throw at them. Give us a call today at 877-328-2343 to learn how we can help you!
To learn more about the reliable and quality coding services that we offer, visit us on the web at HCC Coders.