The Wichita Business Journal held it’s annual banquet to honor those businesses selected as the Best Places to Work in Wichita for 2016.  Forty-five companies were recognized for their efforts in creating employee-friendly environments.  The staff at OBS could not have been prouder than to see Brooke and Branda accept the first-place award for the 2016 Best Place to Work in Wichita for businesses with 25-100 employees.  The award was based on staff nominations and job satisfaction surveys.  What an honor!

Thirty staff members attended the banquet, and needless to say, we were the proudest and loudest group there!  When we returned to the office, the entire staff was waiting with champagne to toast two wonderful bosses who continue to guide and inspire us.

However, Brooke and Branda would be the first to tell you that this company is a great place to work because of our staff!  We share the common goal of doing the best job we can for our clinics and doctors.  We love what we do, and it shows in our dedication to quality!   But we do have to admit that it was nice to have the business community in Wichita recognize what a great company OBS is!

New ICD-10 Coding Changes Coming 10/1/2016

We have almost one successful year of the transition from ICD-9 to ICD-10 behind us! There are some new updates and changes that will take effect, again, on October 1^st, 2016. While these changes are not as extensive as the transition that took place in 2015, there are some notable items you will want to review.  Some of the codes you use day to day have been updated and may require additional characters. Please take some time to visit with your software vendor on how they are handling these changes for October 1^st, 2016, and make sure you have the latest updates installed prior to the deadline! 

Flexibility period for claim filing is ending

In addition to this update, that is effective on October 1st, Medicare is removing the ‘flexibility’ period of not requiring the highest level of specific coding. Now is a great time to get in the habit of avoiding unspecified codes and making sure you are drilling down to the most specific code or codes possible when seeing and treating your patients.  Review the items and links below to get informed and make any adjustments needed for your practice prior to new changes on October 1^st, 2016.

Helpful tools and resources

□   ICD10data.com’s website has a summary of new, revised, and deleted codes. Remember that codes with a green arrow next to them are good, billable codes. Codes that have a red arrow next to them are not valid, and should not be used to bill services.

http://www.icd10data.com/

□   You can also find helpful downloads and reference material on the CMS website. There are many files here to review and you can download the content that will best support your practice.

o   The ICD-10-CM_ConversionTable-FY17 is pretty helpful. It will show the new, or current code assignment, the date it is effective, and the previous code assignment

2017 ICD-10-CM and GEMs (General Equivalence Mappings)

• Example image of the downloaded spreadsheet below:
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https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Coding/ICD10/2017-ICD-10-CM-and-GEMs.html

□   Medicare’s most recent information on the expiration of ‘flexibility’ in processing diagnosis codes starts on page 9 with question number 28 and continues through question number 33 on page 11.

o   You can access this document by clicking the link below the image.

• Example image of the Q& A sheet below:
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This may not reflect any changes after publication on the OBS website

https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Coding/ICD10/Clarifying-Questions-and-Answers-Related-to-the-July-6-2015-CMS-AMA-Joint-Announcement.pdf