Psychosocial Functioning of People with Substance Abuse and Bipolar Disorders.

This study assessed whether a secondary diagnosis of a substance use disorder in hospitalized people with bipolar disorder was associated with poorer outcomes on self-reported measures of mood (Profile of Mood States), subjective distress (Behavior and Symptom Identification Scale), and coping resources (Coping Resources Inventory), and with specific patient characteristics. Sixty-two patients with bipolar disorder and a secondary diagnosis of a substance use disorder and 60 patients with only a bipolar disorder diagnosis participated. Patients with bipolar disorder and a secondary diagnosis of a substance use disorder perceived significantly more impairment on all three measures than did patients without the secondary diagnosis.

Role of a medical staff coding committee in documentation, coding, and billing compliance.

Physician documentation, Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) coding, and compliance with federal billing regulations are essential given the government's significant efforts to address fraud and abuse and the grave financial and legal consequences of noncompliance. Because Medicare guidelines do not focus substantially on psychiatric care, compliance is especially challenging for psychiatrists and psychiatric centers. Four years ago, the University of Texas-Harris County Psychiatric Center formed a medical staff coding committee to assist the center and its psychiatrists in dealing with compliance issues.