flynn043

A few weeks ago, it occurred to me that my job hasn't been "normal" for the last six years.  Right around this time six years ago is when I first went to AHIMA's ICD-10 Academy and earned my status as a trainer.  Creating and presenting ICD-10 training materials came soon after that and it wasn't until recently I realized that my job hasn't been normal for the last six years.  And since I've only known my husband for four years, one could argue that he's never known me when I'm normal... er.. at least when my job is normal! As I look around the articles and social media related to coding, a lot has changed in this industry in the six or seven years that I've put myself out there as the Coder Coach.  When I first started blogging and meeting once a month with coding students and wanna-be's, there weren't a lot of people out there looking to mentor coders.  Now, my voice is one of many as people who never heard of coding before ICD-10 jum...

Yes, it's true.  There are so many books and so little time, I haven't even had time to blog for the last two weeks because I had my nose in two of them.  Thank God for smartphones and long waits at the car wash, or who knows how much longer it would been before I posted again! In my first post of this series , I gave one of my favorite quotes: "ICD is from Mars, HCPCS is from Venus."  So let's move on to Venus for a bit.  Don't worry, we'll be back to Mars, but I like to talk about the present before I talk about the future (ICD-10), so let's get on with it.  I apologize for the length of this post, but I have a lot to say today! Three Levels of HCPCS The Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System (HCPCS) has three different levels and just to make things more interesting, Level I is not usually called HCPCS, it's called CPT.  The Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) was developed and is maintained by the American Medical Association (AMA). By Phys...

ICD-9-CM Has Procedure Codes? In part two of my blog series about coding systems, I'd like to present ICD-9-CM, Volume 3. If you've taken classes that are preparing you to take the CPC exam, it might be news to you that ICD-9-CM has three volumes. Or procedure codes. So that's it: volume 3 of ICD-9-CM is procedure codes.  Hospitals Use It In part one of this series, I mentioned that HIPAA defines which code sets are used for each health care setting. Volume 3 ICD-9-CM codes are only mandated for hospital inpatient claims. They are a major factor in the determining DRG assignments, which drive hospital inpatient payments.  Some hospitals also assign ICD-9-CM volume 3 codes for hospital outpatients as well. This is solely for data collection purposes but the codes get "scrubbed" off the outpatient bill and don't go to the insurance company. ICD-9-CM codes may be used to analyze volume of a particular type of procedure performed either as inpatient or outpatient....

What's Your Idea of a Best Seller? Every once in a while I page through a magazine taking keen interest in the best seller and "must read" book lists that everyone is talking about.  I usually tear out the pages for books that are interesting so I can download them later.  And then I rarely read them.  Or it takes me literally months to finish a book.  I love to read, but frankly, after a day of reading code books, and spending a lot of time writing, I just don't have the eye or mental energy to crack a book for fun. My idea of a best seller is a string of code books that I use every day.  Don't worry though, I find other ways to have fun that have nothing to do with coding! The last time I moved, I had lots of friends helping me lug boxes and it didn't take long for them to zone in on the heaviest ones: they were labeled "code books."  I have code books for various coding systems going back several years and yes, they are heavy.  And it's hard t...

This December, coders across the country got the ultimate Christmas present: a bill passed the House and Senate without the addition of language that would further delay ICD-10 implementation.  As we breathe a sigh of relief and get ready for a worry-free Christmas (at least as far as coding is concerned), we aren't fully exhaling until the end of March when the SGR bill comes up again for a vote. But how many people are aware that there is another type of legislation at work that could cut down on the number of RAC denials we get?  Sounds almost too good to be true, doesn't it?  While the legislation is real, it's in very draft form right now.  Unfortunately, from where I sit, it also seems to be flying very low under the radar among my peers and I think it deserves some attention. First of all, if you are not yet familiar with RACs, those are the Recovery Audit Contractors hired by Medicare to recoup improper payments to hospitals and physicians and return that mon...

There is a super cute little toy shop in Coeur d'Alene, ID called Shenanigan's Toy Emporium  that sells vintage toys and other unique items.  When traveling there on business, we usually make a stop in to shop from their wall of amazing salt water taffy and check out their selection of toys that don't come with a power button.  You know, the kind of toys we had prior to the Atari and Game Boy era! Shenanigan's also has a great display of giant microbes - small plush renderings of everything from the common cold to diarrhea.  I am still marveling at how they could create a plush toy out of liquid stool!  I'm sure it's just the geeky coder in me (and my colleagues), but we decided to buy a few and put them out during our training sessions along with our baskets of Play Dough, pipe cleaners, and candy (we like to have FUN in our training sessions!).  Needless to say, they were a big hit with our clients and we noticed on one of the tags that there was a websit...

I've been pretty quiet lately around the blogosphere and some may even think I've disappeared.  And for about a year, up until about October, I really had disappeared a bit to plan and live through my wedding.  After a couple months of an identity crisis, I'll announce here that Coder Coach Kristi Stanton has disappeared and the new Coder Coach is now Kristi Pollard .  The new last name will take a couple of decades to get used to, but I am hopeful that if I'm quoted in the future, it won't be as the first actress to play Buffy the Vampire Slayer. True story. For the last couple of months I've been waiting for inspiration to strike so I could once again become passionate about the blog.  I've been observing.  Don't get me wrong, with all the legislation and talk about more ICD-10 delays, I've also been writing my congressmen, participating in Twitter rallies (follow me at @codercoach), and making posts on Facebook, but I've spent more time just w...