There’s a lot of hype about the world ending in 2012. I don’t believe that, but it reminds me of an REM song & M1024—“It’s The End of the World as We Know It.”
Why? M1024 and its predecessors, M0245 and M0246 have been a part of our home health coding world since 2003 when we started using V codes in our coding. Medicare’s final rule for PPS 2013 limits the use of M1024 to only one particular instance for payment diagnoses beginning Jan. 1, and the plan is to decimate it all together once ICD-10-CM is ushered in Oct. 1, 2014. I applaud deleting M1024 from the OASIS, but I desire a different outcome with the remnants of M1024.
M1024 will be used for fractures only beginning in January. Medicare, in a surprise move, stated that resolved conditions do not belong in M1024 and we shouldn’t have been earning points there. CMS reports that the change will be minimal to our case mix scoring, however other sources report that as many as 60% of our assessments include resolved case mix diagnoses in M1024—that will mean a drop in our payment.
We can still get primary points for diabetes, Neuro 1 and Skin 1 case mix diagnoses if we sequence correctly without using M1024 according to Medicare’s grouper change. But, there is one frequently used method for coding that can mean the end of those points if coders are not careful (less points = less money for those who need it spelled out).
I have a short recording on the change to M1024 that will be posted on my website soon and do not miss the opportunity for more in-depth instruction on the change and its impact in upcoming classes in Dallas and Corpus Christi in December. Check my website for details.
So, it’s the end of the world as we know it. It remains to be seen if we’ll “feel fine.”
