Most of us are working from home now. That’s quite amazing. During the month of July 2019, an estimated total of 4.7 million folks telecommuted, either full or part-time.

Fast forward to the national stay-at-home edict, and now, according to Global Workplace Analytics, those working at home could possibly number 75 million.

So, what new privacy concerns are emerging, with healthcare professionals now working remotely as a result of the lockdown? How is it possible to stay alert, fit, and nimble, while at the same time, being conscious of your work product?
 
Reporting our lead story during this edition of Talk Ten Tuesdays, while remaining in self-isolation, is Rose Dunn, past president of the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) and the chief operating officer for First Class Solutions.

The live broadcast will also feature these other segments:

• Healthcare Data Report: Amid the coronavirus pandemic, the need for reliable health information has never been more immediate. Reporting the fourth iteration in his exclusive five-part series will by Joseph C. Nichols, MD, president of Health Care Data, who focuses on data analysis.  
  
  
• Tuesday Focus: How will you and your team manage the after-effects of coding and billing, as COVID-19 cases start to move through an organization’s billing cycle, while maintaining up-to-date information? Susan Gatehouse, founder and CEO of Axea Solutions, reports on this latest development brought about by the coronavirus.
   
• The Coding Report: Laurie Johnson has an update on the deadly coronavirus that continues to dominate international as well as domestic news headlines.
  
  
• News Desk: Timothy Powell, compliance expert and ICD10monitor national correspondent, anchors the Talk Ten Tuesdays News Desk.
  
  
• TalkBack: Erica Remer, MD, founder and president of Erica Remer, MD, Inc. and Talk Ten Tuesdays co-host, returns to the broadcast to report on another thought-provoking topic that has captured her attention.

The costs of managing prolonged ICU stays for COVID-19  patients, combined with lost revenue from decreased ambulatory visits and the cancellation of elective procedures, will have health systems and provider groups emerging from the ongoing pandemic with significant financial challenges.  

It will be more important than ever to ensure that clinical documentation reflects the true complexity of care being delivered. Reporting our lead story during this edition of Talk Ten Tuesdays will be Matt Lambert, MD, an emergency medicine physician and the chief medical officer for Curation Health.

The live broadcast will also feature these other segments:

• Mental Health Report: H. Steven Moffic, MD, one of America’s foremost psychiatrists, returns to the broadcast to report on the impact of climate change on mental health – part of an exclusive series he is authoring for ICD10monitor.
  
  
• Tuesday Focus: The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently announced expanded coverage for essential diagnostic services amid the COVID-19 pandemic.  Susan Gatehouse, founder and CEO of Axea Solutions, reports on this latest development.
  
  
• Coding Report: Laurie Johnson has an update on the deadly coronavirus that continues to dominate international as well as domestic news headlines. 
  
  
• TalkBack: Erica Remer, MD, founder and president of Erica Remer, MD, Inc. and Talk Ten Tuesdays co-host, will return to the broadcast to report on another thought-provoking topic that has captured her attention.

Medical decision-making (MDM) and medical necessity are not the same thing. MDM specifically refers to the complexity of establishing a diagnosis and/or selecting a management option. Medical necessity refers to the appropriateness of the service provided for a certain condition. But which determines how you get reimbursed, when many healthcare professionals use these terms interchangeably? 

The live broadcast will also feature these other segments:

• Mental Health Report: H. Steven Moffic, MD, one of America’s foremost psychiatrists, returns to the broadcast to report on how best to test your survival skills during this challenging time in our daily lives.
  
  
• Tuesday Focus: Susan Gatehouse, founder and CEO of Axea Solutions,  reports on the Families First Coronavirus Response Act enacted on March 18, the Act was passed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. 
  
  
• The Coding Report: Laurie Johnson has an update on the deadly coronavirus that continues to dominate international as well as domestic news headlines.
  
  
• News Desk: Timothy Powell, compliance expert and ICD10monitor national correspondent, will anchor the Talk Ten Tuesdays News Desk.
  
  
• TalkBack: Erica Remer, MD, founder and president of Erica Remer, MD, Inc. and Talk Ten Tuesdays co-host, returns to the broadcast to answer many of the COVID-19 coding questions that came in from previous broadcasts.

The confluence of the global COVID-19 pandemic and the World Health Organization (WHO) designation of April 7 as World Health Day is fast approaching.

Nonetheless, the organization is asking its global partners to take the time to recognize the work of nurses and midwives, acknowledging the “critical role they play in keeping the world healthy,” marking the raison d'être for the International Year of the Nurse and Midwife.
 
Reporting our lead story during this edition of Talk Ten Tuesdays Lorraine Fernandes, president of the International Federation of Health Information Management Association (IFHIMA), who says that “World Health Day gives us a unique opportunity to explore the ways IFHIMA supports their 23 member nations and other members, including individuals, corporate and educational institutions.” Fernandes will also report on initiatives to advance the IFHIMA mission: “a healthy world enabled by quality health information.”

The live broadcast will also feature these other segments:

• RegWatch: Stanley Nachimson, former Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) career professional turned well-known healthcare IT authority, reports on the latest regulatory news coming out of Washington, D.C.
  
  
• The Coding Report: Laurie Johnson has an update on the deadly coronavirus that continues to dominate international as well as domestic news headlines.
  
  
• News Desk: Timothy Powell, compliance expert and ICD10monitor national correspondent, anchors the Talk Ten Tuesdays News Desk.
  
  
• TalkBack: Erica Remer, MD, founder and president of Erica Remer, MD, Inc. and Talk Ten Tuesdays co-host, will return to the broadcast to report on another thought-provoking topic that has captured her attention.

Eighty percent of what influences a person’s health is related to non-medical issues such as food, housing, upbringing, social support, and income. These socioeconomic and psychosocial circumstances are known as the social determinants of health (SdoH). With the goal of allowing physicians more time with their patients, the American Medical Association (AMA) has made significant revisions to the Office and Other Outpatient Services New and Established Evaluation & Management (E&M) categories for 2021.

During the next live edition of Talk Ten Tuesdays, Collen Deighan will report on what you need to know about this unique coding topic, and how the SDoH are addressed in the medical decision-making component of these revisions to drive proper payment and impact all patients’ health and well-being.

The live broadcast will also feature these other segments:

• The Coding Report: Laurie Johnson will have an update on the deadly coronavirus that continues to dominate international as well as domestic news headlines.
  
  
• News Desk: Timothy Powell, compliance expert and ICD10monitor national correspondent, anchors the Talk Ten Tuesdays News Desk.
  
  
• Tuesday Focus: Data Deep Dive: Dr. Joseph Nichols returns to the broadcast to report his third installment in his exclusive five-part series for ICD10monitor on healthcare data.
   
• Special Report: COVID-19 has impacted the lives of people around the world. Over the past few weeks, many healthcare professionals and colleagues have had to switch to working remotely, from home on the fly. Working remotely has clarified what successful and sustainable remote work requires. Terry Fletcher will provide tips for those who are now working from home.
  
  
• TalkBack: Erica Remer, MD, returns to the broadcast to discuss how to stay sane and well during quarantine.

What are care management services, and are you capturing revenue associated with them?  

Transitional care management (TCM), chronic care management (CCM), advance care planning (ACP), and behavioral health integration are among services you may already be providing for your patients. Good news: you can be paid for those services, as you’ll discover during the next live edition of Talk Ten Tuesdays when nationally-recognized professional physician coder and auditor Terry Fletcher reports our lead story.

The live broadcast will also feature these other segments:

• The Coding Report: Laurie Johnson will have an update on the deadly coronavirus that continues to dominate international as well as domestic news headlines.
  
  
• News Desk: Timothy Powell, compliance expert and ICD10monitor national correspondent, will anchor the Talk Ten Tuesdays News Desk.
  
  
• Special Report: Amid the global pandemic of COVID-19, Dennis Jones of Montefiore Nyack Hospital gives us an update of the State of New York.
  
  
• Tuesday Focus: Laurie Johnson will report on the outcome of the two-day virtual Coordination and Maintenance (C&M) that concluded on Wednesday.
  
  

Will there be a code for EVALI? Or the use of e-cigarettes? Or one for the deadly coronavirus that the World Health Organization has now declared as a pandemic? 

In light of the coronavirus outbreak, the ICD-10 Coordination and Maintenance Committee (C&M) meeting will be online only and convene Tuesday, March 17. The virtual meeting brings together representatives from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), various medical societies, medical device vendors, and the general public. 

The live broadcast will also feature these other segments:

• Tuesday Focus: Dr. Moffic, one of America’s foremost psychiatrists, continues his reporting on the rising world temperature and its impact on mental health.
  
  
• Special Report: The World Health Organization has declared that the global coronavirus outbreak is now a pandemic. Given the international scope of the crisis and the vast amount of health data that will be exchanged, Lorraine Fernandes, president of the International Federation of Health Information Management Associations (IFHIMA), returns to report on patient privacy in this global pandemic.
  
  
• News Desk: Timothy Powell, compliance expert, and ICD10monitor national correspondent anchors the Talk Ten Tuesdays News Desk.
  
  
• TalkBack: Erica Remer, MD, returns to the broadcast to report on another thought-provoking topic that has captured her attention.

There are HIPAA privacy rights that reach farther than those of the average patient. And there are privacy provisions in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) that prohibit discrimination against this population of patients.

But do these prevent discrimination against transgender patients? During this edition of Talk Ten Tuesdays, we asked nationally-recognized professional physician coder and auditor Terry Fletcher to report on the insurance policies from state to state on what cannot be automatically excluded.

The podcast also includes these other segments:

• Special Report: Nationally prominent psychiatrist and author H. Steven Moffic, MD,  returns to the broadcast to report on the intersection of the coronavirus and the rise of racism directed toward Asians and Asian-Americans.
  
  
• The Coding Report: Laurie Johnson has an update on the deadly coronavirus that continues to dominate international as well as domestic news headlines.
  
  
• Tuesday Focus: Data Deep Dive: Dr. Joseph Nichols returns to the broadcast to report his second installment in his exclusive four-part series on healthcare data for ICD10monitor.
  
  
• News Desk: Timothy Powell, compliance expert, and ICD10monitor national correspondent anchors the Talk Ten Tuesdays News Desk.
  
  
• RegWatch: Stanley Nachimson joins the broadcast to break down the OMB review of the CMS and ONC Interoperability rules that were released Monday March 9, 2020.

With more cases of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) being reported in countries outside of China, where the deadly virus has claimed the lives of a reported 2,771, world health leaders are preparing for a global pandemic that will provide a tsunami of health information for use by governments, world health agencies, and researchers, to hopefully control the future spread of the disease, develop vaccines, and share new learning to prevent future outbreaks.

That’s a good thing. But what about the privacy of that health information? Even in a crisis, health practitioners have a responsibility to protect privacy, which is a matter of trust between health professionals and the patient/consumer. And that is why we asked Lorraine Fernandes, president of the International Federation of Health Information Associates (IFHIMA), to report on this crucially important healthcare issue.

The live broadcast will also feature these other segments:

• RegWatch: Stanley Nachimson reports on the latest regulatory news coming out of Washington, D.C.
  
  
• The Coding Report: Laurie Johnson has an update on the deadly coronavirus that continues to dominate international as well as domestic news headlines.
  
  
• Tuesday Focus: March 1 through 7 is National Sleep Awareness Week, and that is why we asked  Dr. Nick van Terheyden to report on the importance of sleep. 
  
  
• News Desk: Timothy Powell, compliance expert and ICD10monitor national correspondent, will anchor the Talk Ten Tuesdays News Desk.
  
  
• TalkBack: Kathy Pride, senior vice president of coding and documentation services for Panacea Healthcare will discuss a current topic that’s surfaced on her radar.

The Trump Administration has grand plans to make healthcare prices more transparent, hoping a little bit of light will help lower the high costs of U.S. healthcare.

In new regulations, the administration is requiring hospitals to disclose, for the first time, the prices they negotiated with health insurers for a wide range of services, as well as the prices they charge patients who are paying with their own money.

But is it going to make any difference? We ask nationally-recognized professional physician coder and auditor Terry Fletcher to check with some health policy experts for their opinions about the new price transparency regimes. Terry gives you the best and worst-case scenarios, as well as the more realistic predictions, as this new rule is enforced during 2020.
 
The podcast also features other segments:

• Tuesday Focus: Is it extravasation or infiltration? Knowing the difference is important for coders – and, actually, all healthcare professionals. Susan Gatehouse, founder and CEO of Axea Solutions, explains why this really matters.
  
  
• The Coding Report: Laurie Johnson has an update on the deadly coronavirus that continues to dominate international as well as domestic news headlines. She also reports on the upcoming Coordination and Maintenance Committee scheduled for March 17 and 18 at the headquarters of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).
  
  
• News Desk: Grant Huang, CPMA, CPC, a consultant for DoctorsManagement, anchors the Talk Ten Tuesdays News Desk.
  
  
• TalkBack: Erica Remer, MD, founder and president of Erica Remer, MD, Inc. and Talk Ten Tuesdays co-host, reports on another thought-provoking topic that has captured her attention.