EDITOR’S NOTE: Luke Phillips, at 13, is the oldest of seven children staying home in Liberty Hill, Texas, during the pandemic. A young leader, the seventh-grader often helps look after his siblings, and even coaches his younger brothers and sisters in their sports. A soccer goalie who is currently moving through the ranks of the Olympic Development Program, he was invited to Barcelona and participated on the U.S. team at the FC Barcelona training camp in August of last year. He recently competed in the Regional ODP Soccer Championship in January, gaining a spot in the next level of competition in Auburn, in August of this year. Luke is the grandson of longtime RACmonitor contributor Angie Phillips, PT.
As an athlete and student, COVID-19 has caused many emotions to come up. Some things were kind of cool, but I don’t think we handled it very well.
We broke for spring break, thinking we could all be going back after one week. Spring break quickly turned into two weeks, then four weeks, and eventually, we never went back to school. We started “learning from home” after our two-week spring break. It was new and weird. While technology is great, it was a whole different way to learn. The teachers had to learn a new way to teach, and the students had to learn a new way to learn. Some subjects are easy to teach over the computer, like my tech apps class. But some, like science, are a lot harder. I can’t do the experiments at home by myself. So I ended up watching a lot of videos of others doing things and then writing about it.
I like to learn hands-on, so it was harder for me to pay attention. I had to be more self-motivated, since I didn’t have a teacher running the class and telling us what to do every day. The good thing is I can go back and re-watch the lesson if I didn’t get it the first time. I have a teacher who does not like to reteach, so if you don’t get it the first time, it is hard to get help. By being home, I was able to re-watch things and learn at my own pace, which helped me understand the material better and not feel the stress of having to get it the first time. My grades in that class have gotten better. Although it doesn’t matter, really, since the school is just doing a pass/fail system. Not getting credit for the actual work you do makes it harder to put in the extra effort. And when you do well, it is kind of disappointing to only get a “pass” instead of the good grade you earned.
It is weird to not see your friends. Everyone was expecting to not be saying goodbye, but “see you in a week.” We didn’t get to say our goodbyes to our friends, coaches, and teachers. The year has ended with no real end. A lot of my friends are going into high school next year, and I don’t get to say goodbye before they leave. I cannot imagine what the seniors are going through. My house is not very lonely, since I have a lot of siblings, but I know people are lonely not being able to see people. I think a lot of kids are getting more addicted to social media, since it’s the only way to connect with friends right now.
As an athlete, I hate it. I cannot practice with my team and coaches. I travel across the U.S. for competitions and training, and those are all canceled. These camps are to get all the top athletes from each state together to compete, and now we cannot do that. It will affect next year’s teams too. Since no one can practice together, we must find ways to practice by ourselves for a team sport. It is hard to motivate yourself, especially when you really need another player there to play with you. Not being able to meet with our coaches is hard too. Athletes need their coaches there to push them and help fine-tune their stills. We will all have a lot of work to do when we can get back into it again.
While I understand we need to keep people safe, I think shutting everything down was a dumb idea. It has stopped so many things that will have impacts for longer than just a few months. I wish we could have allowed those who felt the need to stay home to do so, and those who still wanted to go out to do that too. If we could go to school if we felt safe, but also had the option to learn from home if we lived with someone who was at a high risk, I think it would have done the same thing, but not put so much pressure on families. I am lucky to have my mom not work, so she was able to help me and my siblings do school work, while my dad worked. I cannot think it was easy for families where both parents worked. I hope we can get back out soon and try and get back to normal.
Maybe people will be more careful about staying home when they are sick now.
EDITOR’S NOTE Day 3 of the federal shutdown continues. This article by Mark Spivey is part of a special section today published by RACmonitor and
As expected, the federal shutdown began early Wednesday morning. What’s unknown is how long it will continue. Neither congressional Republicans nor Democrats appear to be
Please log in to your account to comment on this article.
Accurately determining the principal diagnosis is critical for compliant billing, appropriate reimbursement, and valid quality reporting — yet it remains one of the most subjective and error-prone areas in inpatient coding. In this expert-led session, Cheryl Ericson, RN, MS, CCDS, CDIP, demystifies the complexities of principal diagnosis assignment, bridging the gap between coding rules and clinical reality. Learn how to strengthen your organization’s coding accuracy, reduce denials, and ensure your documentation supports true medical necessity.
Denials continue to delay reimbursement, increase administrative burden, and threaten financial stability across healthcare organizations. This essential webcast tackles the root causes—rising payer scrutiny, fragmented workflows, inconsistent documentation, and underused analytics—and offers proven, data-driven strategies to prevent and overturn denials. Attendees will gain practical tools to strengthen documentation and coding accuracy, engage clinicians effectively, and leverage predictive analytics and AI to identify risks before they impact revenue. Through real-world case examples and actionable guidance, this session empowers coding, CDI, and revenue cycle professionals to shift from reactive appeals to proactive denial prevention and revenue protection.
Sepsis remains one of the most frequently denied and contested diagnoses, creating costly revenue loss and compliance risks. In this webcast, Angela Comfort, DBA, MBA, RHIA, CDIP, CCS, CCS-P, provides practical, real-world strategies to align documentation with coding guidelines, reconcile Sepsis-2 and Sepsis-3 definitions, and apply compliant queries. You’ll learn how to identify and address documentation gaps, strengthen provider engagement, and defend diagnoses against payer scrutiny—equipping you to protect reimbursement, improve SOI/ROM capture, and reduce audit vulnerability in this high-risk area.
Only ICD10monitor delivers what you need: updates on must-know changes associated with the FY26 IPPS, including new ICD-10-CM/PCS codes, CCs/MCCs, and MS-DRGs, plus insights, analysis and answers to your questions from two of the country’s most respected subject matter experts.
Get clear, practical answers to Medicare’s most confusing regulations. Join Dr. Ronald Hirsch as he breaks down real-world compliance challenges and shares guidance your team can apply right away.
Federal auditors are zeroing in on Inpatient Rehabilitation Facility (IRF) and hospital rehab unit services, with OIG and CERT audits leading to millions in penalties—often due to documentation and administrative errors, not quality of care. Join compliance expert Michael Calahan, PA, MBA, to learn the five clinical “pillars” of IRF-PPS admissions, key documentation requirements, and real-life case lessons to help protect your revenue.
During this essential RACmonitor webcast Michael Calahan, PA, MBA Certified Compliance Officer, will clarify the rules, dispel common misconceptions, and equip you with practical strategies to code, document, and bill high-risk split/shared, incident-to & critical care E/M services with confidence. Don’t let audit risks or revenue losses catch your organization off guard — learn exactly what federal auditors are looking for and how to ensure your documentation and reporting stand up to scrutiny.
Learn how to navigate the proposed elimination of the Inpatient-Only list. Gain strategies to assess admission status, avoid denials, protect compliance, and address impacts across Medicare and non-Medicare payors. Essential insights for hospitals.
Happy National Doctor’s Day! Learn how to get a complimentary webcast on ‘Decoding Social Admissions’ as a token of our heartfelt appreciation! Click here to learn more →
CYBER WEEK IS HERE! Don’t miss your chance to get 20% off now until Dec. 1 with code CYBER25
CYBER WEEK IS HERE! Don’t miss your chance to get 20% off now until Dec. 2 with code CYBER24
