ICD-10 Clinical Scenarios and Medical Concepts Help Understanding of Reimbursement Risk

ICD-10 clinical scenarios can be used to understand potential risks and variations in health care claims reimbursement for procedures that are provided after October 1, 2014.

For example, an 82-year old female patient with a cardiovascular condition could have a procedure under ICD-9 CM with a correlating Diagnosis Related Grouping (DRG) of 251[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][1] and a reimbursement for the procedure of $9,622.80.  Under ICD-10 after October 1, 2013 this same procedure, if documented and coded one way would lead to the same DRG of 251 and therefore would be “revenue neutral” under ICD-10.  However if documented and coded differently this procedure could result in a DRG 230[2] the reimbursement might shift to $24,343, or a reimbursement risk of $14,721.  This is one hundred and fifty three percent (153%) of the original reimbursement.  However, CMS suggests cross-walking this procedure to a DRG 254[3], which could result in a third reimbursement outcome.

Understanding how ICD-10 changes medical concepts can help hospitals and other health care providers plan for shifts in reimbursement, and it can help health plans and large self-insured employers to design a path forward in redesigning medical policy and benefit plans.  Proper ICD-10 impact assessment and ICD-10 implementation planning can help health care companies improve their planning and preparation for the best transition possible.  ICD-10 clinical documentation improvements, coder quality and other aspects can be addressed via the right methodology and reference implementation model.

Related Posts

Notes

  • [1] Percutaneous Transluminal Coronary Angioplasty – MS-DRG 251 “Percutaneous cardiovascular procedure without coronary artery stent without MCC”
  • [2] Coronary Bypass – MS-DRG 230 “Other cardiothoracic procedures without CC/MCC”
  • [3] Source: CMS https://www.cms.gov/acuteinpatientpps/downloads/CMS-1533-FC.pdf – Vascular Repair – MS-LTC-DR 254 Other vascular procedures without CC/MCC

[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]

Michael F. Arrigo

Michael Arrigo brings four decades of experience in the software, financial services, and healthcare industries. In 2000, Mr. Arrigo founded No World Borders, a healthcare data, regulations, and economics firm with clients in the pharmaceutical, medical device, hospital, surgical center, physician group, diagnostic imaging, genetic testing, health IT, and health insurance markets. His expertise spans the federal health programs Medicare and Medicaid and private insurance. He advises Medicare Advantage Organizations who provide health insurance under Part C of the Medicare Act. Mr. Arrigo serves as an expert witness regarding medical coding and medical billing, fraud damages, as well as electronic health record software for the U.S. Department of Justice. He has valued well over $1 billion in medical billings in personal injury liens, medical malpractice, insurance fraud cases. The U.S. Court of Appeals considered Mr. Arrigo's opinion regarding loss amounts, vacating, and remanding sentencing in a fraud case. Mr. Arrigo provides expertise in the Medicare Secondary Payer Act, Medicare LCDs, anti-trust litigation, medical intellectual property and trade secrets, HIPAA privacy, health care electronic claim data Standards, physician compensation, Anti-Kickback Statute, Stark law, the Affordable Care Act, False Claims Act, and the ARRA HITECH Act. Arrigo advises investors on merger and acquisition (M&A) diligence in the healthcare industry on transactions cumulatively valued at over $1 billion. Mr. Arrigo spent over ten years in Silicon Valley software firms in roles from Product Manager to CEO. He was product manager for a leading-edge database technology joint venture that became commercialized as Microsoft SQL Server, Vice President of Marketing for a software company when it grew from under $2 million in revenue to a $50 million acquisition by a company now merged into Cincom Systems, hired by private equity investors to serve as Vice President of Marketing for a secure email software company until its acquisition and multi $million investor exit by a company now merged into Axway Software SA (Euronext: AXW.PA), and CEO of one of the first cloud-based billing software companies, licensing its technology to Citrix Systems (NASDAQ: CTXS). Later, before entering the healthcare industry, he joined Fortune 500 company Fidelity National Financial (NYSE: FNF) as a Vice President, overseeing eCommerce solutions for the mortgage banking industry. While serving as a Vice President at Fortune 500 company First American Financial (NYSE: FAF), he oversaw eCommerce and regulatory compliance technology initiatives for top ten mortgage banks and led the Sarbanes Oxley Act Section 302 internal controls IT audit for the company, supporting Section 404 of the Sarbanes Oxley Act. Mr. Arrigo earned his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of Southern California. Before that, he studied computer science, statistics, and economics at the University of California, Irvine. His post-graduate studies include biomedical ethics at Harvard Medical School, biomedical informatics at Stanford Medical School, blockchain and crypto economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and training as a Certified Professional Medical Auditor (CPMA). Mr. Arrigo is qualified to serve as a director due to his experience in healthcare data, regulations, and economics, his leadership roles in software and financial services public companies, and his healthcare M&A diligence and public company regulatory experience. Mr. Arrigo is quoted in The Wall Street Journal, Fortune Magazine, Kaiser Health News, Consumer Affairs, National Public Radio (NPR), NBC News Houston, USA Today / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Medical Economics, Capitol ForumThe Daily Beast, the Lund Report, Inside Higher Ed, New England Psychologist, and other press and media outlets. He authored a peer-reviewed article regarding clinical documentation quality to support accurate medical coding, billing, and good patient care, published by Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA) and is published in Healthcare IT News.