CTR Coding Break – Thyroid Gland Surgical Codes

Often when a patient is surgically treated for thyroid malignancy, multiple surgical procedures might be recommended and performed depending on the severity of the malignancy. Per STORE manual 2022 page 55 “when multiple first course procedures coded under the same item are performed for a primary, the most extensive or definitive is the last performed, and the code represents the cumulative effect of the separate procedures”….

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CTR Coding Break – Hematopoietic Transformations

The July 2022 CTR Coding Break titled Hematopoietic Transformations discusses why hematopoietic transformations occur, the difference between transformations to and transformations from, the multiple primary rules in the Hematopoietic Manual as well as walks through three case examples. Hematopoietic cancers are malignancies of immune system cells. Chronic neoplasms transform to acute/more severe neoplasms and are the most common form of transformation. Neoplasms may be diagnosed in…

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Sepsis Chatter – Severe Sepsis & Septic Shock Exclusions

Welcome to the July 2022 Edition of Sepsis Chatter! Our newest video presentation is titled: Sepsis Chatter- Severe Sepsis and Septic Shock Exclusions: COVID-19, Administrative Contraindication to Care, Directive for Comfort Care, and Palliative Care. This presentation begins with a review of the current CMS abstraction guidance to determine if an encounter is excluded due to one of the following scenarios: Documentation that Covid-19 is diagnosed…

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Sepsis Chatter – Severe Sepsis, Septic Shock & Infection

Welcome to the June 2022 Edition of Sepsis Chatter! Our newest video presentation is titled: “Severe Sepsis, Septic Shock and Infection: Abstracting the Earliest Documented Time from One Provider Note”  This presentation begins with a review of determining when severe sepsis is present using provider documentation only and severe sepsis present met by clinical criteria. In addition, we will review the four common challenges related to…

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