Ingenix consultant featured in HDM article

Laurie Johnson, a senior health information management consultant for Ingenix, was featured in an Oct. 1, 2008 article published online by Health Data Management, called Preparing for Medicare Audits.

The article focuses on using various strategies to prepare for potential audits from Recovery Audit Contractors (RACs). These strategies include conducing self-assessments, forming RAC committees, and data mining.

Recommendations from Johnson, as quoted from the article, include:

• "In conducting a self-assessment, providers should 'follow the money' and gather detailed information on the accuracy of documentation and coding for their high-volume Medicare procedures, advises Laurie Johnson, senior HIM consultant at Ingenix Consulting, Eden Prairie, Minn."
• "A RAC committee should make it a priority to educate the hospital's board of directors about Medicare audits and keep the group informed of preparation efforts as well as the outcome of appeals, says Johnson of Ingenix Consulting. The committee also should acquire a post office box just for receiving letters from Medicare auditors to make sure they don't get lost, she adds."
• "Because few hospitals have completely automated their patient records, Johnson of Ingenix says providers should create a detailed matrix listing all areas that generate documentation, and in what format. This will help ease the process of retrieving all information an auditor requests, whether that task is handled internally or by an outsourcer, she says. ‘Many facilities are not aware of where all their documentation is,' she notes. For example, a radiation therapy department may have its own department-level paper record for patients who visit several times a week, she explains."