Along with one of the most common blood-thinning medications in the world, taken daily to prevent blood clots, comes frequent checks called “pro-times” or international normalized ratio (INR) monitoring. 

This has been taken for granted in the past, as the work involved for the physician to monitor such patients at least monthly (and sometimes more often) can be costly for a medical practice. However, in 2018, as Medicare continues to reinforce support for primary care and certain medical specialties like cardiology, anticoagulation management is now a payable service, which may be available for work that is already being done in your practice.

During this edition of Talk Ten Tuesdays, nationally recognized professional physician coder and auditor Terry Fletcher reports on the importance of documentation to capture the new CPT® codes for home and outpatient INR monitoring services. 

This broadcast will also feature:

• The Coding Report: The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) proposed changes for acute-care hospitals in the 2020 fiscal year include discussions of complication or comorbidity (CC) and major complication or comorbidity (MCC) adjustments. Nationally recognized health information management (HIM) leader and past president of the California Health Information Management Association, Gloryanne Bryant, reports this developing story. 
  
  
• The Dunn Report: National HIM expert and past American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) President Rose Dunn returns to the broadcast with her fifth installment in her series on how HIM can play a role in other areas of the revenue cycle.
  
  
• News Desk: Timothy Powell, compliance expert, and ICD10monitor national correspondent anchors the Talk Ten Tuesdays News Desk.
  
  
• TalkBack: Erica Remer, MD, FACEP, CCDS, founder and president of Erica Remer, MD, Inc. and Talk Ten Tuesdays co-host, offers her unique blend of analysis and commentary on a current healthcare issue.