General Question for the Week of December 29, 2025
Bryan Nordley
December 29, 2025
When do we report code 50706?
EDITOR’S NOTE: Stanley Nachimson, former Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) career professional-turned-well-known healthcare IT authority, is a longtime ICD10monitor contributing editor and a popular panelist on Talk Ten Tuesdays who has a monthly segment called RegWatch during which time he reports on the latest regulatory news coming out of Washington, D.C.
Yes, we are in a pandemic. The loss of over 100,000 lives in the US, and over 350,000 worldwide is a tragedy. The incredible economic displacement of millions more is also a tragedy. The overwhelming burden on hospital and healthcare providers has been excruciating to watch on the nightly news.
I am one of the lucky ones. No one in my immediate family has the virus. I have known some folks who had at and have recovered. My work has not been materially impacted; in fact, I have a few major projects that are continuing in spite of the pandemic.
There have been few negative impacts for me. Several conferences I planned to attend and speak at were cancelled, so I didn’t get the chance to visit Cleveland or Jacksonville. And I missed the opportunity for personal contact with many colleagues.
Our summer planned trip to London and Paris was cancelled, so I guess we will go another time.
I was pretty well versed in the technology for virtual meetings, so it was not a stretch for me to participate. It has been nice to see so many of my family, friends, and acquaintances pick up on the technology and use it.
And I am fortunate to be living in Florida where we have not been overwhelmed by the virus. In fact, we are opening up nicely, with restaurants at 50 percent capacity, businesses opening (especially the hair and nail salons), pools opening, golf courses open. It has been a personal inconvenience, luckily not a personal tragedy.
As I am in the stage of getting back to some sort of normalcy, I have been thinking of the path forward for all of us. And there will be a path. Our society has not been given a fatal diagnosis, although we have certainly suffered.
Going out to eat at a restaurant and having a normal conversation with friends and family at the table has been refreshing. Sitting at the pool on a sunny day is amazing and continues to remind me of how fortunate I am and how wonderful life can be. Getting in the car and driving to a store at a normal time and having a normal shopping list is another simple pleasure.
We have discovered that there are things that work well in certain circumstances (telehealth, some virtual meetings). Some do not work well – funerals on Zoom are nowhere near what they should be. We cannot close down the entire economy for too long. We need accurate medical and scientific information as soon as possible, but it has to be vetted and it has to be reliable.
We have seen that our health care system can accomplish extraordinary things. It bent, but it did not break. There are some adjustments we need to make, but a wholesale restructuring is not a necessity.
I am seeing the first webinars and articles about “Post Covid-19”. That is an encouraging sign. The pushback against lockdowns is an example of people itching to return to some semblance of normal, and that will happen. For some, sooner than others depending on their situation. But it is clear that the trend is moving towards the normal instead of away from it.
Some concluding observations – we will not rebuild a health care system that is set up to handle a pandemic 365 days a year. We will try to set up some preparatory systems. We will be looking at some of the changes and see what will be worth keeping (telehealth, more flexibility for practitioners to practice across state lines and up to their licensed ability). But my guess is that we will be much closer to they way we were than the way we are now.
Programming Note: Listen to Stanley Nachimson’s live report this Tuesday on Talk Ten Tuesdays, 10-10:30 a.m. EST.
When do we report code 50706?
When is code 92930 reported in 2026?
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.
As AI reshapes healthcare compliance, the risk of biased outputs and opaque decision-making grows. This webcast, led by Frank Cohen, delivers a practical Four-Pillar Governance Framework—Transparency, Accountability, Fairness, and Explainability—to help you govern AI-driven claim auditing with confidence. Learn how to identify and mitigate bias, implement robust human oversight, and document defensible AI review processes that regulators and auditors will accept. Discover concrete remedies, from rotation protocols to uncertainty scoring, and actionable steps to evaluate vendors before contracts are signed. In a regulatory landscape that moves faster than ever, gain the tools to stay compliant, defend your processes, and reduce liability while maintaining operational effectiveness.
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.
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
