Hospital coding staff correctly reported indicators that identified conditions as present on admission (POA) in 97% of sampled claims from 2008, according to an OIG report entitled “Assessment of Hospital Reporting of Present on Admission Indicators on Medicare Claims.” The reported coding errors involved the assessment of developing or chronic conditions (21%), errors in assigning POA indicators to exempted conditions (32%), and other reporting errors (47%). The OIG observes that this error rate is relatively low, particularly since the review assessed claims submitted early in implementation of the POA reporting requirement. Nevertheless, the OIG believes that encouraging hospitals to assess POA reporting practices and retraining staff as needed could help to ensure reporting accuracy.
