Coding Guidelines Review

[Ellen]

I am an AHIMA student and on my last class. It is an "internship" of all settings and lots of coding exercises. I have read Guidelines, but wonder if there are any tricks to recognizing the most significant or for accessing an answer more quickly than I have been able to do. I found Laureen's bubbling and highlighting the codes very helpful, so can I rely solely on how my book publisher highlights the guidelines?
Thanks for any help.
Ellen

 

[Laureen]

so can I rely solely on how my book publisher highlights the guidelines?

I'm not sure what you mean by that - can you elaborate? For CPT if you've going through my videos or course and have notes written like mine they you have key guidelines next to the codes where you need them. But for ICD you need to be familiar enough with how to use that manual and very familiar with the "official" guidelines (usually printed in the front of the manual) so that when you are coding a case you say "ah this is an HIV case - let me review those guidelines before selecting the final codes" and you turn to the chapter specific guidelines for HIV and refresh your memory. That is how I do it anyway. We can't memorize everything but we should know when we're faced with a "tricky" coding situation and when to review the guidlines.

Also remember with ICD that guidelines or notes can appear right by the code you're looking at or at the category level, section (block) level and even all the way back at the chapter level so keep flipping back.

HTH