The FY 2019 Official Guidelines for Coding and Reporting versus the American Hospital Association (AHA) third-quarter Coding Clinic: when it comes to coding body mass index (BMI), there’s a contradiction.

The Guidelines say BMI codes should only be assigned when the associated diagnosis meets the definition of a reportable diagnosis. AHA guidance states that obesity is always coded, even without supporting clinical significance. What’s a coder to do?

During this edition of Talk Ten Tuesdays, James Kennedy, MD offers timely and practical advice on how to handle and resolve this issue.

Other segments to be featured on the broadcast include:

• Coding Report: ICD-11 is being touted for its complexity and granularity, as you’ll learn when national health information management (HIM) expert and past American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) President Rose Dunn returns to the broadcast.
  
  
• CDC Report: It’s flu season, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is recommending an annual influenza vaccination for patients six years and older. But is there more to be done? Laurie Johnson, senior healthcare consultant for Revenue Cycle Solutions, LLC and an ICD10monitor contributor,  reports the latest news from the CDC.
  
  
• News Desk: Timothy Powell, compliance expert and ICD10monitor national correspondent, anchors the Talk Ten Tuesday News Desk.
  
  
• Tuesday Focus: Telemedicine is at a tipping point, expanding far beyond interactions between physicians and patients into entirely new ways to deliver healthcare and practice medicine. Where do ICD-10 and CPT® fit into this virtual delivery of medicine? That’s the question, and nationally recognized professional physician coding authority Terry Fletcher has the answers.