CTR Coding Break – Breast SSDI ER/PR Percent Positive or Range

Estrogen and Progesterone percent positive or range is the percentage of cells staining ER or PR positive by IHC. Breast SSDI estrogen receptor (ER) percent positive or range and progesterone receptor (PR) percent positive or range have been collected since 2018. Cancers with these types of receptors are called hormone responsive cancers. Hormone responsive cancer patients will most likely be prescribed treatments that will block estrogen…

Posted on Nov. 27, 2023 in CTR Coding Break

CTR Coding Break – Lung Procedures for Malignant Pleural Effusion

In the Registry Partners October 2023 CTR Coding Break, presenter Monica Reece, RHIT, CTR discusses palliative care definitions as described in our standard setter manuals and goes into detail for the STORE manual palliative care codes. Palliative care reporting tracks care that helps prolong the patient’s life by controlling symptoms, to alleviate pain or to make the patient comfortable.  Pleurx drain placement and thoracentesis procedures are…

Posted on Oct. 30, 2023 in CTR Coding Break

Melanoma Clinical Margin Width – New SSDI for 2023

As facilities move into abstracting 2023 cases, there have been some exciting and positive changes with abstracting melanoma skin primaries specifically with surgical coding and the addition of a new SSDI – clinical margin width.  The margin width for wide local excision (WLE) for melanoma is based on the Breslow thickness of the primary tumor. Per the American College of Surgeons Optimal Resources for Cancer Care-2020…

Posted on Oct. 2, 2023 in How Should I Code This?

CTR Coding Break – Abstracting Stomach Cancer

In this 60 minute presentation we will review several aspects of abstracting stomach primaries to help attendees gain confidence in abstracting this sometimes very difficult site. We’ll review the anatomy and function of the stomach and discuss clinical workup and diagnostic studies related to the diagnosis of stomach cancers. We’ll provide instruction on appropriately assigning primary site codes and review histology codes and reportability for specific…

Posted on Sep. 25, 2023 in CTR Coding Break