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Admit patients properly, avoid costly consequences
How many of your hospital’s patients are placed under outpatient observation status during the course of a year? Of those, how many should be placed under observation status? And how solid is your supporting documentation? A great many hospitals aren’t following the rules, according to MedLearn consulting experts. The main culprit: Hospital staff don’t understand the regulatory requirements. Join us on May 4 for this webcast seminar, as we clear up the confusion and dispel the myths surrounding the determination of observation status. Not knowing could be costly — in terms of missed revenue, claim denials and penalties for overcharging. Highlights:
- Defining exactly what is, and what isn’t, outpatient observation status — how it differs from inpatient status and standard-of-care patient services
- Understanding the goal of observation status for different situations (e.g., for post-ED treatment or for prolonged post-operative recovery), consistent with CMS guidelines
- Interpreting physician documentation, including the use of outdated terms (such as “24-hour hold”), and the importance of a patient status policy to help clarify intent
- Nursing documentation — correctly recording start and end times, patient condition, requests for new status and other essential elements
- Selecting and applying the correct G codes for observation services, as well as when you should report Condition Code 44
- Which bedside services are payable separately from observation services and how to properly bill for them
- Case examples to illustrate appropriate and inappropriate admission to observation status vs. inpatient status
About our presenter
This webcast seminar is presented by Peggy Hapner, RHIA, CCS, and Barbara Vandegrift, RN, BSN, MA. A MedLearn consulting services manager, Ms. Hapner possesses nearly 25 years of experience in health information management, coding, teaching, data quality and operations. She is MedLearn’s technical expert for hospital outpatient HIM services. Ms. Vandegrift is a MedLearn senior healthcare consultant with more than 20 years of clinical nursing experience. Her areas of special expertise include case management in short-term acute hospital settings and compliance with medical necessity requirements.
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