Posts Tagged ‘AAPC’

When you open the October 2013 Coding Edge, we’ll be using ICD-10-CM.

After more than a decade of false starts and revisions, we are all finally packing for destination ICD-10, which features a new language of an enormous but elegant “smart code” set. For a profession whose members weather weekly reimbursement rules and quarterly code changes, implementation seems both reassuringly far away and uncomfortably close. And frankly, after experiences like the Correct Coding Initiative (CCI) Black Box Edits and various audit programs, it’s hard to get excited about embarking on a boat for yet another federal initiative.

That’s why when AAPC leaders looked at the journey ahead, they searched for “the right approach, the right curriculum, the right timing, and the right cost,” said Deborah Grider, CPC, CPC-I, CPC-H, CPC-P, COBGC, CEMC, CDERC, CCS-P. As AAPC vice president of strategic development and former National Advisory Board (NAB) president, she’ll guide us through the transition. Grider is a long-time Coding Edge ICD-10 contributor and author of such coding standards as AMA Press’ Coding with Modifiers, with a new book, Preparing for ICD-10-CM: Make the Transition Manageable being released by the AMA this month.

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In reviewing the criteria required for Certification Commission for Health Information Technology (CCHIT) credentialing, the American Academy of Professional Coders (AAPC) uncovered multiple areas for concern. Many of the CCHIT requirements conflict with federal mandates for correct coding or with what AAPC promotes as appropriate coding principals.  Read more »

Medical coding and the American Academy of Professional Coders (AAPC) were featured in an introductory segment of the popular Chicago Public Radio show This American Life, the weekend of Oct. 17, in its program “Someone Else’s Money” — the second part of the show’s look at the American health care system. Host Ira Glass tried to “decode” coding, explaining the various coding systems and pointing out examples of codes and the apparent lack of logic in their development and assignment. 

You can download the show via the program’s Web site. The program is distributed by Public Media International and can be heard on most National Public Radio and independent stations.

Health and Human Services (HHS) announced last week the final rule for implementation of the ICD-10-CM code set. For more information, go to the link below:

http://news.aapc.com/index.php/2009/01/icd-10-date-of-oct-1-2013-announced/