May

19

OIG Work Plan: Still time to prepare

By HIM Connection

Your hospital’s HIM department has more to think about than ever before. President Obama has made electronic health records a top priority on an increasing list of healthcare concerns. Recovery audit contractors will be at your facility soon—if they haven’t come already. Never mind the myriad other puzzles and challenges you face daily just ensuring coding rule and regulation compliance.

To make one part of your life easier, here are four areas of the Office of Inspector General (OIG) 2009 Work Plan that apply to inpatient hospitals:

• Part A IPPS wage indexes
• Inpatient hospital payments for new technologies
• Reliability of hospital-reported quality measure data
• Coding and documentation changes under the MS-DRG system

Although it’s almost halfway through this year, there’s still time to ensure that you’re prepared for an OIG visit.

Editor’s note: For more information about the Work Plan or to purchase a copy of this article for $10, visit the HCPro Web site. Subscribers to Briefings on Coding Compliance Strategies have access to this article in the May issue.