Harmony Insight

The importance of clinical validation has increased for obvious reasons. With the implementation of electronic medical records (EMRs), hospital and health systems are moving forward with clinical documentation improvement. EMRs have their benefits, but sometimes there are inconsistencies found due to a chronic problem in the provider community: to copy and paste from a previous encounter. How errors impact payers and patients  Payers have used clinical validation to deny claims and the numbers have increased post ICD-10. A frequent error found is in patients on chemotherapy. A common side effect in a patient on chemotherapy is pancytopenia, a major comorbid…

Lisa Knowles, Harmony Healthcare’s Compliance, Education and Privacy Officer, once again shares her expert knowledge at the national level in the latest issue of For The Record magazine. The publication, features Knowles in its June/July 2018 issue, in "Joint Maneuvers" by Susan Chapman. Both inpatient and outpatient coders face considerable challenges when coding various joint procedures. Accurate coding of these procedures can be difficult, leading to errors with significant consequences. This article gives insight into the challenges coders face with joint maneuvers, consequences of improper coding, and how to address these problems. To read the full article featured in For…

Meaningful Use was introduced to providers in 2009 with the goal of providing transparency of information for both patient care and the reporting of quality measures to improve overall quality of care. Final rules were published in the Federal Register on July 28, 2010 and became effective on September 26 that same year. This effort led providers on a journey of ensuring their electronic health records (EHRs) met criteria. Eight years have now passed since its enactment and its impact has taken on new forms. Although the concept of Meaningful Use rested on the 5 pillars of health outcomes policy…