A Look Ahead

Healthcare organizations have been forced to stall many process improvement projects over the years due to lack of budget and resources. Enter the coronavirus. The realization quickly set in for HIM and revenue cycle departments that process improvements were the only...

With a positive change in mindset, HIM and coding teams have an opportunity to not only recover, but prosper and be better than ever! While HIM professionals are dealing with current challenges including reduced patient volume, layoffs and furloughs and working from...

As the U.S. begins its recovery from the COVID-19 crisis, evidence strongly suggests that there will never be a return to “normal” for healthcare providers and HIM professionals, but rather a return to a “new normal” that we all should prepare to embrace. The crisis...

With the White House plan for Opening America Up Again, released April 17, 2020, states across the country are aiming to return to pre-pandemic healthcare, including elective surgeries and routine medical visits. On April 19, 2020 the Centers for Medicare &...

ICD-11 Is Coming, or Is It?ICD-11 is the newest version of the International Classification of Diseases. It was presented by the World Health Organization (WHO) and approved at the World Health Assembly (WHA) in May 2019 for adoption by member states. However, the...

KIWI-TEK has attested that they have put into operation a complete set of HIPAA-based privacy and security policies, forms, and a privacy and security risk analysis. As part of our ongoing effort to be the best coding service in the industry, KIWI-TEK is continually...

Revenue cycle executive involvement is an essential ingredient to recognize the full value of any outsourced coding partnership. For the 70 percent [i]of hospitals, health systems and physician groups that plan to extend outsourced medical...

In this month’s Journal of AHIMA, KIWI-TEK’s article “Denial Prevention: Understanding Common Culprits and How to Avoid Them” explores reasons for coding denials and offers practices to promote optimal reimbursement. As our company’s vice president of coding...

In recent years, we’ve seen a growing demand for interventional radiology (IVR) coding—one of the most difficult and complex areas of coding. Healthcare organizations increasingly need professional coders who have the level of IVR expertise, training and experience...

Since 2016, the challenges for managing business associates have become more complicated. In Phase 2 of the HIPAA Audit Program, the OCR will review the policies and procedures adopted and employed by covered entities and their business associates in order to meet...

Myriam Johnson, RHIA, Coding Manager, KIWI-TEK | January, 2019 Medical record coding professionals face added duties, technology transitions and new colleague conversations in the year ahead. Professional fee physician coding piles up as hospitals continue their march...

Sarah Humbert, RHIA, Vice President of Coding Operations, KIWI-TEK,LLC and Catrena Smith, CCS, CCS-P, CPCO, CPC, CIC, CPC-I, CRC, CHTS-PW, Coding Manager, KIWI-TEK | December 20, 2018 In a recent edition of HCPro’s JustCoding.Com, we shared best practices for one of...

Overcoming EHR Medical Coding Backlogs A recent KIWI-TEK brief shed light on how frequently EHRs cause reimbursement backlogs and the magnitude at which they do so. This blog post expands upon that theme, offering three real-life examples of EHRs causing errors in...

KIWI-TEK recently contributed to an article in HFMA’s 2018 Buyer’s Resource Guide on preventing denied claims. The following blog highlight’s KIWI-TEK’s key points. View the full article here Denied claims are a major issue faced by virtually every healthcare...

What Is HIPAA Auditing? Though the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was passed by Congress in 1996, it wasn’t until 2003 that the first national data privacy and security rules were issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services...

On February 21, 2018 Temeka Davis, RHIT, and I hosted a webinar on how to correctly code pressure ulcers. This blog lists three important tips from our presentation for proper coding of pressure ulcers. TIP #1: CHECK YOUR RESOURCES The National Pressure Ulcer Advisory...

I recently wrote about this topic in the Journal of AHIMA's March 2018 issue. The following blog summarizes key points from the article for coding managers and HIM directors or you can read the full version here. The implementation of ICD-10 in October 2015 brought...

EHR IMPLEMENTATION ISSUES TRIGGER MEDICAL RECORD CODING BACKLOGS A recent survey of HIM professionals confirms what KIWI-TEK coding experts already know—electronic health record (EHR) implementations trigger medical record coding backlogs. During the November 2017...