MC Strategies Will Host Webinar to Help Hospitals Navigate IPPS Changes

MC Strategies announced today it will host a free webinar, on September 11, 2007 at 10:00 AM, Central Time, addressing the upcoming changes to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) inpatient prospective payment system (IPPS). CMS’s severity adjusted Medicare Severity Diagnosis Related Groups (MS-DRGs), coupled with a new complications and comorbidities (CC) and Major CC list, will challenge hospitals in ways DRGs have never done before. These changes will require more precise and more complete documentation and coding. Hospitals must focus on educating coding staff and improving documentation efforts in order thrive under this new system and avoid delays or denials in reimbursements. Registration for the event can be found at http://www.mcstrategies.com/webinar.

The webinar will help participants understand the changes being implemented by CMS for FY08 and be able to incorporate the information into plans and activities that will lead to improvements in documentation and coding in their hospitals. The webinar will explain the IPPS changes for FY08, as well as the motivation and rationale behind them; provide detailed information on CMS’s new MS-DRGs; review the new CC and MCC lists and the impact they will have on case mix and coding practices; discuss the types of improvements that will have to be made in documentation and coding in order to meet the challenges and make the most of the opportunities this new system offers.

Presenting this information will be Lynn-Marie D. Wozniak, MS, RHIT, product manager for Revenue Cycle and Compliance Services at MC Strategies. Wozniak has over 25 years experience in health information management, health services research, and health policy review and development and is a recognized expert in patient classification systems and DRG applications. She is a past president of the New York Health Information Management Association (NYHIMA) and served on AHIMA’s Council on Accreditation, Research Review Panel, Program and nominating committees.