Posts by Norwood Staffing
2026 MPFS proposed rule a boon for telehealth, G2211 expansion and more
By Brian Murphy CMS issued the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) proposed rule this month. Links for further reading below…or just ask ChatGPT? On second thought, don’t do that. There are a lot of proposals in the rule, but one that I wanted to highlight are changes to telehealth. I’ve always viewed telehealth as an…
Read MoreHow your coding, CDI practice impacts U.S. News and World Report rankings (with example)
By Brian Murphy U.S. News and World Report just released its 2025-26 ranking of the nation’s best hospitals. As always I’m interested in what you think of these rankings, and secondarily how much your hospital and its CDI and coding programs use the list as a barometer of success. Leave a comment below. (FYI NYU…
Read MoreHIV, hypertension with heart disease, BMI and more updated in ICD-10-CM Official Guidelines for Coding and Reporting effective Oct. 1, 2025
The new ICD-10-CM Official Guidelines for Coding and Reporting are out. Let’s take a closer look. … but before we do, know that these are effective Oct. 1, 2025. So until then stick with the current guidelines. I’m listing here just the major highlights; this summary is not exhaustive and there are many small changes…
Read More2026 OPPS proposed rule: Three things you should know about
By Brian Murphy Here’s three things I found interesting in the OPPS proposed rule, that will impact your hospital and the work you do—if passed. Between the physician fee schedule and the OPPS this was a heavy rulemaking week. Heck, it’s been a heavy rulemaking last couple of months under the new administration. But today…
Read MoreMid-revenue cycle professionals must ask: What would make our physicians’ lives easier?
By Brian Murphy Every so often—check that, on a regular basis—it pays to step back and think about the physician. We are pushing ever more complex, freighted decisions on the MD. Asking for more, and for less reimbursement. Instead of focusing on just optimal coding and documentation, we should also ask: How can we make…
Read MoreElixhauser: A mouthful to say, but a must know concept in understanding hospital quality and performance
By Brian Murphy Elixhauser. That’s the post. Still with me? I get it. What a name and a mouthful. I think I first heard it from Dr. James Fee in my ACDIS days. I thought he’d either busted out some piece of obscure clinical terminology or suffered an aneuryism. I later heard it from Cheryl…
Read MoreCode Red: Aligning Risk Adjustment with CMS’s New Audit Mandate
Listen to the episode here. For this week’s episode I’m bringing you something a little different, but of such importance that I had to share it with my Off the Record audience: The massive audit expansion of Medicare Advantage announced by CMS. In case you missed it, CMS in May rocked the mid-revenue cycle…
Read MoreCode Red: CMS announces massive audit expansion of Medicare Advantage, raising risk adjustment coding questions
By Brian Murphy For a while I felt like this was coming to a head. As far back as 2016-2017 I was monitoring reports of Medicare Advantage (MA) plans under investigation for alleged fraud related to HCC upcoding. I wondered when we’d see massive, coordinated action. That day is here. On May 21 CMS announced…
Read MoreAre you assigning admit type based on NUBC guidelines—or a loose interpretation to influence quality metrics?
By Brian Murphy Prior to our Off the Record podcast recording my guest Penny Jefferson shared with me a white paper she authored on admit type. I’m going to summarize a bit of it here as it was a substantive basis of our conversation. The paper begins by differentiating between admit status and admit type.…
Read MoreAnybody Listening? Ambient AI and the Future of Documentation with Dr. David Canes
Listen to the episode here. Back in 1990 the heavy metal band Queensryche asked its listeners, “Is there anybody listening?”, a lament for not being heard in a world of overstimulation, noise and artificially. In healthcare in 2025, the answer is yes: someone is listening. But the listener just might be a machine. Ambient…
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