Experience Makes the Difference
Our 15 years of experience in defensible and accurate ICD-9/DRG coding assignment, and our more recent experience in the similar RA/HCC model, has again found:
• There is significant undercoding, which translates as lost revenue, in ICD-9/HCC assignment.
• There is significant overcoding, resulting in indefensible revenue, in ICD-9/HCC assignment.
• The vast majority of physicians do not understand nor document thoroughly for accurate ICD-9/HCC coding assignment. Therefore they need training and incentive.
MARSI has a proven 15 year track record of providing compliance programs that maximize reimbursement while offering over-code protection. For more about MARSI click here to visit himexperts.com.
MARSI is uniquely positioned with infrastructure that supports a 100% chart review for some of our clients. We have experience for making it work. We currently review approximately 15,000 charts/month and have done so for years. Because of our experience, our system is prepared to expand dramatically without affecting our accuracy/defensibility.
We have utilized our existing staff of coding educators and added a foremost expert with five years of experience in training coders in RA/HCC coding. MARSI has developed our own RA/HCC training program and is currently training or have already trained over 80 RA/HCC coders.
We are unique in that we add special support with the experience of physicians that have worked within the coding/documentation arena for more than 15 years each.
Medicare Risk Adjustment Compliance Leadership
Judy Marino CPC, CCS, Director of HCC, is a certified coder with more than 25 years experience in the medical field working directly with physicians. The past 5+ years have been dedicated exclusively to chart auditing, coding, and physician and coder training for Medicare Advantage Patients. She has personally trained approximately 15 coders and several hundred physicians in the past 5 years and is currently training hundreds more.
Judy developed the “Risk Adjustment” departments at two major health groups in Southern California before joining Medical Audit Resource Services Inc. (MARSI) in March of 2008. The tools and methods Judy has developed over the past 5 years have been tried and tested on more than 1000 physicians at two different health plans with remarkable results.
Her last group of physicians saw their Risk Scores increase from an average of 0.8 to an average of 1.5 in only one year by using her tools and techniques. But what she is most happy about is the fact that so many of her physicians felt their quality of care improved and that the “learning curve” was well worth the effort.
Todd M. Husty, D.O.,FACEP MARSI’s President and majority owner. Board Certified in Emergency Medicine, Dr. Husty is the lead physician overseeing medical record review, physician education, and daily operations of MARSI. Dr. Husty has been performing clinical record reviews since 1982 and has been providing physician documentation improvement training since 1987.
Dr. Husty is regarded as an expert in documentation for DRG’s, APC’s, Emergency Medicine, CPT/E&M, Inpatient vs. Observation, and Risk Adjustment. He has served on and has been the Medical Director of multiple hospital committees including Quality Assurance, Risk Management, Medical Executive, Utilization Review, and Health Information, and has also served as Chairman of Departments of Emergency Medicine. Dr. Husty has served as or is serving as the Medical Director/Physician Advisor of Utilization Review for many hospitals in Florida, California, Wyoming, New Mexico and West Virginia. Dr. Husty is a nationally known speaker for AAPC and AHIMA. He also is an associate professor and clinical preceptor for the University of Central Florida, College of Medicine.
Dr. Husty’s area of special interest is the direct correlation between the quality of documentation and the quality of care with an emphasis on reimbursement systems that promote both, such as Risk Adjustment / Hierarchical Condition Categories.
