Following the Furthering Access to Stroke Telemedicine (FAST) Act, Medicare claims for telestroke services increased in rural and urban emergency departments. However, there was still substantial underbilling from hospitals with known telestroke capabilities, according to a Health Affairs study sent to journalists.

Study Rundown: Time spent writing patient documentation in EHR represents a large contributor to physician workload. To reduce this burden and simplify reimbursement, the AMA enacted changes to billing code guidelines for E/M visits starting in 2021. The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of this guideline change on physician E/M billing practices and EHR use.

A member of a message board I follow, and to which I occasionally contribute, recently posed a question about a denial of coverage based on an alleged failure to meet medical necessity requirements. The admitting diagnosis was metabolic encephalopathy. She did not say (nor, regrettably, did I ask) the principal diagnosis submitted with the claim.

On Feb. 11, the World Health Organization (WHO) released ICD-11 2022. This is the official version of the 11th revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) coding set that WHO member countries will be implementing worldwide. In fact, according to the WHO release announcement, 35 countries are already using ICD-11.