I’ve been trying to explain why this is not how things work. If an auditor pulls the chart for review for the visit on 3/3/17, what is released is the documentation from 3/3/17. So if a diagnosis is coded on that visit that is not documented on that visit…. guess what..
I am a former Compliance Auditor under a CIA (Corporate Integrity Agreement) who now is on the facility side. When talking to my professional fee counter parts, they are told they can use the whole chart to code from.. (?) On the facility side we are confined to the account/stay that we are currently coding.
If anyone can provide reference either way as to the professional fee side, I’d appreciate the help. I’ve been looking under all the CMS literature but have been unsuccessful. Thanks in advance!