Physicians must be educated on proper documentation to meet ICD-10 code-set specificity and payer-coverage policies.  Guest commentary from Holly Louie, RN, CHBME, PCS, corporate compliance officer at Practice Management, Inc., in Boise, Idaho The reimbursement impact of ICD-10 implementation on providers has the potential to be more ...

Percutaneous cholecystostomy (PC) is usually an image-guided procedure that involves placing a drainage catheter directly into the gallbladder. The procedure has an important clinical application in emergency treatment of gallbladder disease. I said it is ''usually'' an image-guided procedure; however, our institution had several patients in need ...

About four months ago, I posted a blog asking our readers if they were using social networking tools such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc., for professional purposes. The majority of those who responded seem to have discovered social media as a pretty good way to connect with their peers in the industry.   Consider these comments we ...

KISSIMMEE, FL -- Christmas decorations next to palm trees are a fun treat for your Philadelphia-based reporter at the Gaylord Palms Convention Center in Kissimmee, FL, where opening remarks for the 15th Annual Meeting of the Association for Molecular Pathology just wrapped up.Tim O'Leary, MD, PhD, chair of the Program Committee, welcomed attendees ...

Guest commentary from Celwyn C. Evans, a senior partner at Greencastle Associates Consulting in Malvern, Pa. With the passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) and the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, the focus of debate has fallen squarely on the challenge of defining ''meaningful ...

Evidence-based medicine will improve the quality of care and impact of each health care dollar spent. Guest commentary from Marc Perlman, global vice president, Healthcare and Life Sciences Industry, Oracle The U.S. health care industry is challenged like never before to improve outcomes while reducing costs. Our current rate of spending is ...

I posted a blog recently about Software Advice posting a survey on its site. Here's the results of their survey about whether stimulus money for electronic health record/electronic medical record (EHR/EMR) adoption was creating any buyers or just tire-kickers. Software Advice said that Oct. 30 marked the close of the first reporting period for ...

Now that Halloween has passed, I would like to return to our discussion on peripheral vascular disease. I would like to devote this entry to an exploration of the pathophysiology of lower extremity occlusive disease (LEOD). LEOD is a progressive disease--specifically, chronic ischemia of the lower limbs due to the atherosclerotic process ...

Guest commentary from William F. Jessee, MD, FACMPE, president and CEO of the Medical Group Management Association The Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) is pleased that the House has voted favorably on H.R. 3962 (The Affordable Health Care for America Act) and we look forward to its rapid action on the companion bill, H.R. 3961, which ...

Respiratory therapists are generally hard at work in the trenches when it comes time to assess the condition of asthmatics in the ER. But there may be more to the task of treating the patient than simply listening to chest sounds and heart rate, evaluating the patient's color, and administering MDIs or nebulizer treatments. In the future, ...