The new coronavirus is linked to 1,502 deaths among residents of nursing homes and assisted-living facilities in Florida, a new state report shows. It’s an increase of 145 deaths in one week. This is particularly sad when we remember the patients that died in the Rehabilitation Center of Hollywood Hills following Hurricane Irma. While there was a disaster, the main cause of the loss of life at the Rehabilitation Center of Hollywood Hills was a breakdown of the system. The Hollywood police department and state investigators failed to check on nursing homes in the areas with the largest damage.
The current situation is again a failure by state and local officials to provide tests and protective equipment to nursing home staff. If staff in all 600 nursing homes in the state were tested for COVID-19 and provided protective equipment, it is not disputable that the numbers would have been reduced.
It is not too late. While there is no vaccine, we can test all nursing home staff for COVID-19. We can test them for both current infection and test them to see if they have been exposed and have anti-bodies to the COVID-19 virus. Workers that have been exposed can’t carry the infection. They can safely return to work.
More importantly, we can create procedures that will help nursing homes with the COVID-19 outbreak and to be better prepared for the next upcoming flu season. Let’s do what we should have done in 2017 after hurricane Irma. We need to expand policies and procedures to deal with disasters and pandemics before they occur.
It finally happened! The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) finally released the 2026 Outpatient Prospective Payment Final Rule on Friday at 4:15 pm,
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) sent a giant wave of panic through the industry this past week, when they announced that the
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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.
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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.
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