Charge Description Master

What are the consequences of not utilizing current codes and charges? Discuss how using last year’s CDM will affect current year’s bottom line.

There are very many consequences of not using current codes and this may lead to overpaying, not paying and being underpaid thus leading to problems after auditing. This is because after auditing, it will result in problems such as investigations for fraud because of overpayment, underpayment and no payment at all. Thus using last year’s CDM will definitely affect the payment system making it hard to understand who paid or did not pay (Buck, 2013). This will therefore lead to a confusion and may also lead to lose of jobs. Due to the current economic situation which is not the same as last year’s this may therefore lead to huge losses since the previous year’s codes are supposed to be different from the current codes.

Will this create a positive or negative result for the health care facility? Explain your answer.
It will be of the negative result to the health care facility because it is likely to encounter losses. This is because the codes keep on changing on a yearly basis and in case of a mistake or a change in the products code, then the health care facility will be held liable (Buck, 2013).

How can facilities ensure that the current CDM is used?

They can ensure the current CDM is being used through changing the codes annually (Buck, 2013). This will make it easy for the health care facilities to be able to deal with the ever changing, revenue codes, and product codes. Thus ensuring that they are using the current CDM without any problems being encountered.

Reference

Buck, C. J. (2013). 2013 CCS coding exam review: The certification step with ICD-9-CM. St. Louis, Mo: Elsevier/Saunders.