The September edition of Arthroplasty Today features the first white paper published in the open-access journal. “Help, my rating looks bad! Coding comorbidities in arthroplasty,” by Joseph W. Galloway, MD and Frank R. Voss, MD. Dr. Voss is Chair of the AAHKS Practice Management Committee, and this white paper represents work endorsed by that committee.
The paper outlines the problem of unadjusted outcome comparisons between surgeons. It outlines a remedy and argues that it is critical that the complexity of care provided by surgeons be carefully documented. The paper proposes accurate coding of patients’ comorbidities during hospitalization for total knee arthroplasty and total hip arthroplasty. It includes a chart detailing recommendations of the specific diagnostic codes that are most important. Visit ArthroplastyToday.org to read this article and the entire September issue.