All Entries Tagged With: "physician advisor"
The physician advisor: An invaluable resource
If your facility does not have a physician advisor, my recommendation is to get one. The physician advisor at our facility is great. Dr. Jim Chambers is very knowledgeable, not only in the field of cardiology, but he is quite knowledgeable in the area of coding. Dr. Chambers has spend countless hours educating and assisting our hospital billing department in establishing correct billing codes.
Documentation is key in obtaining the appropriate billing code. Physicians work hard taking great care of their patients, but what they lack is being able to document everything they have done for the patient and the outcomes. Outcomes are essential in the world of coding. For example, when a patient comes in with an abnormal prealbumin level, the physician treats this, but yet sometimes only documents that the patient has malnutrition. In this case, the hospital is reimbursed at the lowest level for malnutrition.
The stages of malnutrition are based on the prealbumin level, so the physician needs to document what level of malnutrition the patient is experiencing as there is dollar difference in the different levels of malnutrition. Our physician advisor has been working with our physicians to correct this. [more]
Free physician advisor tools
Take advantage of two free tools—courtesy of the Association of Clinical Documentation Improvement Specialists (ACDIS)—to help you ensure that your physician advisors are at the top of their game.
Click here to download a sample physician advisor job description.
Click here to download a sample physician advisor documentation review program.
For further training on the roles and responsibilities of physician advisors, consider purchasing a recording of the audio conference “Clinical Documentation Improvement for Physician Advisors,” sponsored by the ACDIS. The audio conference, recorded on April 14, explains how physician advisors can help you significantly improve initial documentation and physician response rates to queries; however the position must be structured correctly in order for it to work well. For more information about this audio conference, visit HCMarketplace.
Do you have a tip or tool you’d like to share, or perhaps a question for our experts? Contact editor Julie McGinley at jmcginley@hcpro.com. Your tip or question might be appear in the next issue of Case Management Weekly.
CMW Tip of the Week: Communication is key with physician advisors
This week’s tip comes from Sharon Mass, PhD, ACM, and Donna Ukanowicz, MS, RN, ACM.
It is helpful for physician advisors (PAs) and staff members to have viewing rights to each other’s electronic calendars and be able to communicate via text messaging or e-mail. The most important element is to be able to touch base with each other at any given time during the working day. Determine the best mode of communication for different types of information. For example, if you need an immediate decision for an emergent need, you may wish to text with a contact number if verbal discussion is required. If the need is not urgent and can wait until the end of the day, you may wish to send an email and put in the header, “Reply needed by 5 p.m. today” or “FYI only” for information that does not need a response.
Have a tip or tool you’d like to share? Or maybe a question for our experts? E-mail it to editor Julie McGinley at jmcginley@hcpro.com.Your thoughts could be featured in the next issue of Case Management Weekly!
