When the Wrong Admission Status Makes National Headlines
It is normally that time of year when many of us not only steal candy from the kids’ Halloween collections (my kids never got to
It is normally that time of year when many of us not only steal candy from the kids’ Halloween collections (my kids never got to
I’m working on a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) audit wherein the question invites the reviewer to
Let me start this article by asking for your help. Flash back to 2013. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) at that time
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is once again proposing to eliminate the inpatient only list starting in January 2026, repeating the process
EDITOR’S NOTE: This story was previously posted as a special bulletin on Wednesday, July 16, 2025. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued
I suspect some readers will consider this article political, but I would assert that it is highly principled in one root thesis: authoritarianism is bad.
As you may recall, last week I critiqued a webinar on the two midnight rule. As you will recall it was not pretty. Today I
It is all too common for patients and physicians to take to social media to air grievances about insurance company misdeeds. A recent case generated
Many of you have heard me criticize our dependence on patient satisfaction scores as a quality measure. Back in 2012, researchers at the University of
EDITOR’S NOTE: Listen to Dr. Ronald Hirsch as he makes his Monday Rounds on Monitor Mondays, this coming Monday, Jan. 8 at 10 a.m. EST.
The Two-Midnight Rule was first announced 10 years ago. So, how is it possible that as we approach the tenth anniversary of its implementation, it
As many of you know, most patients having surgery must undergo a preoperative evaluation by the facility at which the surgery will be performed. Depending

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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