Question

POA ( present on admission) is important for billing and coding. What is POA, explain each type of POA with examples, why it's important to add POA in the coding of cases.

Answer 1

The present on admission or POA is an official documentation done in the health care facilities for entering the status of the patient while the inpatient admission occurs. The status of the patient is recorded periodically till the patient become the outpatient.

The POA indicators are added in the coding of the medical cases. Some of the types of POA indicators include the following

• Y- This POA indicator highlights the conditions which are diagnosed while being inpatient. When a specific health problem like the heart issue is identified in the patient and it has been already diagnosed while being inpatient then Y indicator is given.
• N- The health issue which are not diagnosed while being inpatient and diagnosed after being inpatient is marked as N.
• U- The conditions for which the documentation is insufficient. For example if there is no sufficient reports to evidence the heart issue for a patient but there is a probability for the same it is marked as U.
• W- This POA indicator will be present if there is an uncertain if condition

POA is important while coding of the cases because it differentiated the issues which are existing in the patient before admissions and the health issues developed after admissions.