Talk Ten Tuesdays

One of the largest regional coding organizations in America’s healthcare universe – the California Health Information Association (CHIA) – wrapped its final workshops this past week, with delegates flying home to share their insights on what was considered to be a pivotal experience. The ICD10monitor producers of Talk Ten Tuesdays have secured a rare appearance of CHIA’s past president, Gloryanne...

The national conference of the largest regional coding organization chapters in America’s healthcare universe gets underway this weekend – and James S. Kennedy, MD, will be there. Dr. Kennedy, president of CDIMD, a national coding and clinical documentation integrity (CDI) consultancy, will be reporting on major events taking place at the California Health Information Association (CHIA) conference...

UnitedHealth Group (UHG) stock is plummeting following the abrupt resignation of its CEO Andrew Witty. His sudden departure, coming on Tuesday, May 13, came amid multiple lawsuits and threatened actions by private, state, and federal agencies across the country, and amid massive criticism for the company’s tendency to deny beneficiaries coverage for services at elevated rates. Witty’s exit from th...

Radiology reports are rich in clinical detail, yet ICD-10 codes often fail to fully capture the complexity and specificity of imaging findings. That is why the producers of Talk Ten Tuesdays and ICD10monitor have invited Laura Manser to explore the most common disconnects between radiology documentation and ICD-10 coding – especially in areas like incidental findings, laterality, and linking imagi...

The revenue cycle can be thought of as a machine that keeps churning nonstop, making everything work, financially speaking, for your hospital. But even the most well-oiled machinery can get clogged, meaning it doesn’t perform at its peak. And that is why the producers of ICD10monitor and Talk Ten Tuesdays have invited Jessica Miller-Dobbs to join the popular Internet broadcast as its special guest...

Payer edits and denials are pervasive in healthcare reimbursement. These problems typically arise from coding inaccuracies, insufficient documentation, or non-compliance with payer-specific guidelines. These challenges can lead to revenue loss, increased administrative burden, and frustration among healthcare providers. A skilled coding staff plays a vital role in mitigating these issues. Proactiv...

Custodial and social hospitalizations have long been a hospital challenge. From inadequate patient support and services to medically unwarranted occupancy of inpatient beds, plus lack of payment for provision of care, prevention and management of these cases continues to be an issue. While much has been discussed about how to proceed, many hospitals fail. And that is why the producers of ICD10moni...

In today’s healthcare environment, America’s hospitals are experiencing increases in payer denials as a result of incorrect application of drug HCPCS units and a drug HCPCS modifier (JW/JZ). These denials have increased costs for providers, because the existing staff is either being redirected to spend more time on the issue or additional staff are being hired to resolve the drug charge denials. H...

Effective communication is a critical skill in navigating clinical and non-clinical interactions to avoid disaster striking a facility’s bottom line. In fact, poor communication directly impacts the bottom line. Today, amid a cacophony of competing and complex issues spanning generations and a range of viewpoints, there is an overarching need to foster collaboration. During the next live edition o...

World Health Day, which will be officially observed on Monday, April 7, will mark what organizers claim will be a year-long celebration. Here at ICD10monitor and Talk Ten Tuesdays, we will celebrate a bit early, during the next edition of the Talk Ten Tuesdays live Internet broadcast. Headlining the broadcast will be Lorraine Fernandes, immediate past president and communications chair of the Inte...

National Doctors’ Day is Sunday, March 30. Even though the national one-day observance is only a few days away, the ICD10monitor producers of Talk Ten Tuesdays want to ensure that everyone is aware of the significant contributions made daily by America’s doctors. Hence, our recognition of the occasion will continue during the next live edition of the popular weekly Internet broadcast. As part of t...

Time is money. And nowhere is that adage more relevant than in today’s American hospitals. For example, consider the patient who is medically ready for discharge, but still waiting for a skilled nursing facility (SNF) bed to open up. Or the case in which a patient might medically require a cardiac catheterization before being safely cleared to discharge to home, but there’s a delay until the proce...

Overwhelmed by nutrition advice? You’re not alone. From sketchy influencer “secrets” to Big Food’s algorithm-driven traps, a myriad of pitfalls means making healthy choices has never been harder. Questions abound: should you go all-in on the potato diet? Or embrace the all-meat life? (Spoiler: probably not.) This week, during the long-running and popular Talk Ten Tuesdays Internet broadcast produc...

Overwhelmed by nutrition advice? You’re not alone. From sketchy influencer “secrets” to Big Food’s algorithm-driven traps, a myriad of pitfalls means making healthy choices has never been harder. Questions abound: should you go all-in on the potato diet? Or embrace the all-meat life? (Spoiler: probably not.) This week, during the long-running and popular Talk Ten Tuesdays Internet broadcast produc...

Overwhelmed by nutrition advice? You’re not alone. From sketchy influencer “secrets” to Big Food’s algorithm-driven traps, a myriad of pitfalls means making healthy choices has never been harder. Questions abound: should you go all-in on the potato diet? Or embrace the all-meat life? (Spoiler: probably not.) This week, during the long-running and popular Talk Ten Tuesdays Internet broadcast produc...

Discharge orders have evolved. Today, they indicate the end of hospital billing for an encounter. However, when the discharge order is placed on a day other than the day a patient actually leaves the hospital, it can often lead to under-reporting the patient’s length of stay (LOS) and other issues. And when some clinicians are told to place such an order when patients are medically ready to leave...

Could generative artificial intelligence (AI) revolutionize healthcare, or is it just a risky trend? During the next must-see live broadcast of Talk Ten Tuesdays, Dr. Christopher Boyle will walk you through the potential and pitfalls of generative AI. His journey will take you on an exploration of three promising uses of AI that focus on safety, documentation, and coding accuracy. You’ll learn how...

When a law enforcement officer comes to your facility, what do you need to know? And what should you do? While until recently, this topic was seldom on the top of lists of healthcare issues, a recent move by the Trump Administration (Executive Order) appears to have revoked a longstanding policy that prevented federal law enforcement agents (U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement) from going to c...

It could be the shot heard ‘round the world: the announcement recently of Stargate, a multi-billion-dollar artificial intelligence (AI) project now underway in the U.S. and backed by huge corporations, including Oracle, Open AI, and SoftBank, among others. But what will be the impact on healthcare, and notably, health information management (HIM) professionals? Reporting on this huge healthcare is...

Looking to unravel healthcare’s complex issues? Looking to streamline your operations and improve decision-making? Join us this coming Tuesday, Jan. 14 at 10 a.m. EST, when the long-running Talk Ten Tuesdays kicks off its 2025 broadcast season with special guest Frank Cohen, senior director of analytics for VMG Health. Cohen will share his insight on Hanlon’s Razor, a principle that can be summari...

We’re living in a hybrid world. And now the hybrid concept has become part of the coding and clinical documentation integrity (CDI) world. The process of physician querying is already a stressful activity for many CDI and coding professionals. It has recently become even more stressful, because many hospitals are receiving a new type of denial: a hybrid between coding and clinical validation. It a...

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) measures and, in some cases, penalizes facilities whose inpatient mortality or readmission (up to 3 per cent of their traditional Medicare revenue) rates for pneumonia, heart failure, acute myocardial infarction, and other conditions exceed their established benchmarks.  Since these measures are based solely on ICD-10-CM/PCS-based administrative...

Even savvy dentists tend to find a challenge in boosting their reimbursements by correctly coding procedures as medical claims instead of dental ones. During the next live edition of Talk Ten Tuesdays, Jeff Holt will report on the benefits of this strategy, including common pitfalls that make dentists want to pull their hair out. You’ll discover that the benefits of having top-notch coders and cut...

He was enthralling as he explained his revolutionary technology that empowers healthcare professionals to make crucial decisions in real time that improve patient care. Dr. Gerasimos Petratos, founder and CEO for HITEKS, had successfully automated the tenuous physician query process. In our continuing series of technical reporting, “Healthcare Technology,” the producers of ICD10monitor and Talk Te...

In the wake of last Tuesday’s Presidential Election, the producers of ICD10monitor and Talk Ten Tuesdays have invited world-renowned psychiatrist H. Steven Moffic, MD to analyze America’s collective psyche. As in all election outcomes, there were losers and winners. Yet how we, as Americans, manifest these feelings will be the essence of the next live edition of the popular and long-running Intern...