Acute Kidney Injury (AKI) with all creatinines WNL
Good morning! Our facility has partnered with an external vendor to look at potential coding opportunities, and one of their big recommendations is AKI. In reviewing their account examples, they are showing the increase (or improvement) in serum creatinine by 1.5x, but all of the values are WNL. For example, a patient with initial creatinine 1.12 that improved to 0.67; our reference range if 0.44-1.30.
Has anyone used the 1.5x increase (KDIGO) to support AKI when creatinine values are in the range of normal? Does this increase the risks of denials on these accounts? AKI has been one of our frequent denials, and our physician advisor is concerned of a potential increase in denials in this situation.