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AAPC ST LOUIS WEST CHAPTER NEWSLETTER July 2013

President: Ileana Stewart, CPC Vice President: Marianne Schanthal, CPC Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected]

Treasurer: Lydia Thomas, CPC, CCC Secretary: This could be you!! Email: [email protected] Email:

Education Officer: Shanel Crosswhite Member Development: Barbara Fontaine, CPC Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Letter from the President

July 4th is the most memorable day in the history of the United States. However, the actual separation occurred on July 2, 1776. Interesting enough, today the United Kingdom is our sixth-leading trading partner. In doing some research for this newsletter I found some interesting facts to share with everyone. In July 1776 there were an estimated 2.5 million people living in the colonies. Today the estimated population is 316.2 million. Two of the five who drafted the Declaration of Independence, our second President John Adams and our third, Thomas Jefferson both passed away on July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of signing the Declaration. Fifty-nine places have the word “liberty” in their name with Pennsylvania having more than any other state with 11. Of these 59 places four are counties. Georgia, Florida, Montana and Texas have a Liberty County. The most common patriotic sounding word used in naming places is “union” with 136. Other commonly used place names are Washington, Franklin, Jackson and Lincoln. These, along with many more fun facts, can be found at the United States Census Bureau’s site.

July is Fireworks Safety Month. Fireworks and Independence Day go hand in hand. When not handled properly, fireworks can cause eye injuries and burns. Before you celebrate, and if it is legal in your town, make sure everyone knows about home fireworks safety. The safest way to enjoy fireworks is to attend a public display. However, if you do want to shoot them off in your neighborhood kidshealth.org is one of many organizations that promote safety and has a list of safety tips on their website. The risk of injury is highest for children ages 5-19 and adults 25-44 and more than half occur to children under 15. Most of the accidents involving fireworks stem from those that are legal for consumers to use. Forty percent of fires on July 4th are started by fireworks, more than fires caused by any other method. Please use fireworks responsibly and have a safe and fun 4th of July.

We need your help to keep the chapter moving forward in 2014. Please consider running for office. Holding an office is both rewarding and fulfilling. If you have any questions about any of the positions, come and talk with any of the officers.

We will be collecting school supplies during July and August. Please bring your donations and receive one Point for Education. See you all at our next chapter meeting on July 18th at 6:00 pm.

Sincerely,

Ileana Stewart, CPC President

Kindness Matters At the recent national conference in Orlando, the 16 existing members of the AAPCCA and the 5 newly appointed members came together to present a very important session for all of the leaders and prospective leaders of our local chapters. It was brought about because of a suggestion from the local Chapter Department, as the ladies there had noticed a distinct change in the phone calls they were getting. It seemed that more and more officers were having disagreements among themselves, and frequently it was because of poor communication and hurt feelings. We were asked for our opinions on how we might encourage everyone to just play nice!

Have you ever had one of those days? You are late getting up, no time for coffee or tea. The traffic is horrible on your way to work and someone jumps into your lane and cuts you off. Then when you get to work, there is an extra stack of paper for you because someone called in sick. Things go from bad to worse and your mood does too. What are you to do? Here’s a new idea! Don’t let the little things get your down, and remember that life is a series of little things! In the long run, this may not be your worst day ever, even though it may seem like it! Take a breather and change your attitude! Attitude is everything! And remember too, that the people you meet on that day, are not sharing your grouchy outlook. BE KIND!!! Respect yourself and respect the other people in your life. CHOOSE to be intentionally kind even though others may not be. You can’t control them, but the best thing you can do for yourself is not to share your bad mood. Be a professional. Kindness always counts.

Over the next couple of months we will be touching on how your attitude, your approach and how kindness affects professionalism. How can you be what you want to be on the inside AND the outside? Start with kindness!

Barbara Fontaine, CPC 2013 Vice Chair of the AAPC Chapter Association

Remember, don’t shoot the messenger! Be kind! See information below for opportunities to attend an ICD-10 Boot Camp, get online training or set up a chapter boot camp. This could be what you need!

ICD-10-CM BOOT CAMPS ($595) Live training and a small group environment in a city near you

 16 CEUs  2 Days  ICD-10 code set course manual  Added Value: o Includes online general code set training ($395 value) o Includes ICD-10-CM code set book ($89.95 value) o Includes ICD-10 practice assessment ($39.95 value)

ICD-10-CM ONLINE ($395 $295 for a limited time) Online training at your own pace

 16 CEUs  16 Hours (at your own pace)  ICD-10 code set course manual  Added Value: o ICD-10-CM code set book may be added for $89.95 $25

Chapters were recently given the option of hosting ICD-10 training for up to 50 chapter members at a time. Will your chapter be one of them? Talk to your officers today to see if this is a possibility

ICD-10-CM LOCAL CHAPTERS - Our local chapter plans to hold two Boot Camps in the spring so stay tuned for details. These will be VERY affordable and here in St.Louis! We will make the announcement first to all the members who responded to our chapter survey, so let us know NOW if you are interested! Live training and a group environment at a local chapter near you

 16 CEUs  2 Days  ICD-10 code set course manual  Note: Only available with participating chapters. Contact your chapter officers for details.  Added Value: o Includes ICD-10-CM code set book ($89.95 value)  THIS OFFER WILL BE FOR CHAPTER MEMBERS ONLY! MUST HAVE AAPC # TO ATTEND!!  Maximum of 50 attendees allowed for each Boot Camp. Must pay in advance on our website as soon as these are announced. We are looking for venues now

TRIVIA NIGHT IS COMING ON AUGUST 3RD

This is a fund raiser for our chapter and will help cover the cost of our annual chapter conference plus it will be a really FUN night!!

The trivia night will be held starting at 7 pm at the

Overland Occidental Masonic Lodge 10770 Page Avenue, Overland, MO

Cost per person is $15.00

Please pay and reserve your spot at www.aapcofstl.com

WELCOME NEW ST LOUIS WEST CHAPTER MEMBERS!!!

Jessica Beatty Sherry Martinez Trisha Lynn Parnell-Kerby Elizabeth Rieck Mary Liz Steinacher Rachel Wilkes Deborah Rutledge

For information about our chapter, please contact Member Development Officer Barbara Fontaine at [email protected] or any chapter officer. We would love to help you!

JULY CHAPTER MEETING INFO!

Mark your calendars now for our July 18th meeting. This begins with registration before the 6 pm meeting, so come early and meet some new people!! Networking is the best part of any chapter meeting!

Our speaker is Anita Reger who speaks from experience when she talks about “ICD-10 from the Payers Perspective”. If you think you have it bad in being prepared for the advent of ICD-10, come and hear what payers are having to do to prepare!

Please bring some school supplies to share with kids who need them. We will be collecting these at both our July and August meetings. Pick up a few extra while you are out shopping and earn a point for education!

Please come to the meeting on July 18th to see our job board for leads on any jobs or

Check us out online at www.aapcofstl.com and hit the jobs tab!

We are here to help!

Need at mentor? Contact Barbara at [email protected]

TAKING THE CPC EXAM???

Review class September 7th taught by Juddi Schneider, CPC, CPMA, CPC-I

St. Anthony's Hospital 10020 Kennerly Road, St. Louis, Missouri 63128

Register and pay online at www.aapcofstl.com $50.00

CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR RECENTLY CERTIFIED MEMBERS!!!!

Our chapter congratulates the following recently certified members:

Kimberly Anne Diamond, CPC-A Katie Louise Hill, CPC-A Therese Lakebrink, CPC-A Cynthia Love, CPC Vera Nikolayevna Merezhko, CPC-A Kristine Marie Sabala, CPC-A Christy Williams, CPC-A

WELL DONE CERTIFIED CODERS!!!

JUNE CHAPTER MINUTES St. Louis Professional Coders Chapter Meeting Minutes June 13, 2013 7:00 am St Luke’s Hospital, Chesterfield, MO

Officers present: Ileana Stewart, CPC President Barbara Fontaine, CPC Member Development Lydia Thomas, CPC, CCC Treasurer

The meeting began shortly after 7 am while we waited for a few attendees to finish signing in.

Barbara Fontaine introduced herself as the speaker and told everyone that Jamie Montgomery had not been able to attend, but had chosen her favorite session from the recent national conference and it was E/M Coding – Fact & Fiction. Barbara spoke for 30 minutes on this presentation and some of the nuances of coding evaluation and management services. She then switched topics and presented on her favorite session, the Leadership session that was planned and executed by the AAPCCA Board of Directors. She explained that this presentation was built around the acronym “LEADERS” which, originated here in St. Louis at the former Larson-Allen Consulting firm. They had given us permission to use this and to modify it for the members of AAAPC. Each letter in the word stood for something and we got through three of the seven presentations in 30 minutes. They were” Lead by Example”, “Excellence in Everything”, and “Assume Positive Intent”, where it was explained that the Local Chapter Department had noticed that most problems among chapters, members and just life in general had to do with people making assumptions, and not kind ones. The AAPCCA is featuring “Kindness” this year and will present similar programs across the country. The certificates were then distributed for 1 CEU.

Barbara then asked the new members and newly certified members to stand and there were none, so she expressed gratitude for the “oldies” in attendance and said we couldn’t do it without them. President Ileana Stewart proceeded to conduct the business meeting. She announced that the Komen St Louis Race for the Cure is Saturday and also that today is “Dine Out for the Cure”. Anyone who participates and presents their receipts to the Treasurer will be given Points for Education and reminded members to turn those receipts in.

Ileana also announced a new fund raiser for the recent tornado victims in Oklahoma. There have been a couple of chapters whose members were affected and we plan to donate to the AAPC fund to help them. We have an ICD-10 Crosswalk that we will raffle off chance to win through the September meeting. A winner will be announced then and any profits will be sent to Project AAPC for the Oklahoma tornado fund.

Our local chapter conference was then discussed. It is planned for Monday, November 3rd at the St. Charles Convention Center. We have three great speakers lined up, Rhonda Buckholtz, Chandra Stephenson and Rachel Coon. There is an early bird registration price, so register now online at www.aapcofstl.com

We are ordering chapter tee shirts again. T-shirt orders will be taken through today. If we don’t have a big enough response we will be unable to place an order. Please get your order in today.

Trivia Night is August 3rd at 7 pm. It will be held at the Overland Occidental Masonic Lodge at 10770 Page Ave, in Overland. We have had volunteer offered to help that night and they are Kathy O'Brien, Linda Wynn, Cindy Coriano, Marie Walsh, Celestine Moore and Linda Hoffmeister. We still need people to volunteer to bring door prizes and gifts to raffle. See Barbara Fontaine or Ileana Stewart. We need your help!

Ileana then went over the responses that the officers received from the survey that we had sent to members regarding meeting times. There were 6 people who could only come to morning meetings, many who could only come to evening meetings and several who could come to either morning or evening. Many people said they would be interested in occasional Saturday meetings, but the majority said they could attend Monday thru Thursday. Distance was a big problem for those who are never able to attend, others stated child care problems. Some members asked for meetings closer to South County. Ileana said that she would check some alternative meeting spaces such as schools and libraries to see if we could find space that would accommodate the chapter since we are so large. Barbara offered to check some of the meeting rooms at St. Clare Hospital.

Lydia Thomas presented the treasurer’s report and full details are available from her. She did report a loss on our expenses vs. income for May MANia of $551.91. This was mostly caused by members who RSVP’d that they were coming and did not. Next year we will have to consider pre-pay only, but that is really difficult as the purpose of May MAYnia is to invite members who have never attended a chapter meeting to come. Next year’s board will need to take this into consideration Conference is Monday November 4, 2013 – Lydia has brochures. She also announced that so far we have 12 people signed up for our local conference.

Barbara asked how many members would be interested in attending a chapter sponsored, AAPC ICD-10 Boot Camp if the chapter could do it for approximately $250 per attendee. There were eight people who had not yet responded who raised their hands. This gives us a good idea that we will need at least two Boot Camps.

Ileana announced the next meeting as July 18th at 6 pm here at St. Luke’s. The presentation is pending final acceptance by Anita Reger. We will post that in our next newsletter.

Several door prizes were awarded to lucky members and the meeting was adjourned with Ileana announcing that thru Sept meeting we will sell tickets for an I-10 Crosswalk to benefit Project AAPC to go to the OK tornado victims

Barbara Fontaine, CPC - Acting Secretary Donations, Donations, Donations!

With the recent weather related tragedies, there is no better time to donate to Project AAPC or the Hardship Scholarship Fund. The AAPCCA Board of Directors will make sure that your donations go where it is most needed to help our members. Through your generosity, you are changing lives in our communities throughout the nation! It is never too late - Donations are ALWAYS accepted!

 Donate to the Hardship Scholarship Fund  Donate to Project AAPC – American Red Cross and Feeding America – please note which charity you wish the funds to go to

Questions? Contact the Local Chapter Team at 800-626-2633 option 7.

Thank you!

June Coding Challenge Answers This month we are sharing the three-part game developed for AAPC national in Orlando. In Part 1 you must assign the appropriate ICD-10-CM code. The answers will be revealed next month in addition to Part 2 of the game.

ICD-10-CM ICD-10-CM Description Code Abuse of steroids or hormones F55.3 Food poisoning T62.93XA Congenital malformation of nose Q30.8 Injured while dancing with Mop Y93.41 Superficial foreign body (splinter) of right hand S60.521A Crushed by non-venomous snake W59.13XA Kleptomania F63.2 Lack of Caring - apathy R45.3 Narcolepsy G47.419 Congenital kyphosis Q76.413 Gender identity disorder F64.1 Near-decapitation S08.89XA Marcrotia Q17.1 Bone transplant status of legs Z94.6 Spots of unknown etiology L81.8 Overworked; exhaustion R53.83 Immature personality disorder F60.89 Hirsutism - excessive hair growth L68.8 Bitten by alligator W58.01XA July Coding Challenge This is the fun part of the challenge! Name a Disney movie that goes with each of the above conditions! The answers will be in next month’s newsletter! Positive Thought for July