Hamilton. If you haven’t seen it, you’ve heard of it. The Broadway mega-hit has been the toughest ticket on Broadway since its debut in 2015. For the uninitiated, Hamilton explores the life and triumphs of the previously obscure “ten-dollar founding father,” Alexander Hamilton, through rap, hip-hop, and musical theatre.
Throughout the show, Hamilton, the first Secretary Treasurer in the United States, ponders his own legacy through the reoccurring question of “Who tells your story?” And it’s a good question; one that providers need to be focused on as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) moves towards value-based reimbursement. In fact, their goal for 2018 is to have transitioned 90 percent of fee-for-service payments to quality and alternative payment models. Health information management (HIM) professionals—specifically coding professionals—are poised to play an even more important role as these models spread across the country and to additional payers.
Thorough, detailed documentation of a patient’s whole story has always been essential to assigning accurate and complete coding to the inpatient course of treatment. The outline of quality measures used in a value-based payment methodology now makes it imperative for the outpatient/provider setting as well. Read this full article by Health Information Associates’ Betsy Bailey, RHIA, and Brett Randolph, RHIT, CDIP, CCS, AHIMA Approved ICD-10/PCS Trainer as they discuss how Hamilton’s journey on the stage mirrors that of HIM professionals looking to tell the most complete patient story through coding.
Click here to read the Journal of AHIMA article “Who Tells Your Story.”