The Demise of the Inpatient-Only List Begins
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,
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,
EDITOR’S NOTE: Ritesh Ramesh, CEO for MDaudit, appeared on Monitor Monday to report his company’s findings on nationwide audit trends. The rate of payer audits
As Congress again turns its focus to budget concerns, healthcare might be on the backburner for a while. However, two new studies examining the No
As I am sure you all recall, a month ago, RACmonitor eNews broke the story of the new Aetna policy that will pay inpatient admissions
I have two topics to cover today. First, let me start with criticism of an article I read wherein a healthcare executive was interviewed about
Today, in utilization news, there is a warning to any surgeons who may be reading this – or anyone who works with surgeons. You may
The healthcare industry’s landscape shifted dramatically with the implementation of the Transparency in Coverage (TiC) Final Rule. For compliance professionals navigating this regulatory terrain, understanding
Today I want to provide some clarifications to a couple of things I recently read. Now, I must say that correcting others is often viewed
From think tanks to federal agencies, health policy in the U.S. is often shaped by voices we don’t always see in the headlines. Abe Sutton,
Healthcare reimbursement operates on a fascinating paradox: physician services aren’t paid based on market rates or simple invoices, but on calculated values derived from estimated
A Monitor Monday listener recently sent word of what can only be described as a deeply troubling denial of a gender reassignment surgery. The listener
Normally, I write about substantive law, but today I’m going to focus more on psychology. The idea was triggered by the subject line in an

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.

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.
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