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Those attending the first day of AAPC’s Charleston regional conference hit the ground running, and day two was no different. The day began with an early networking breakfast and a barrage of sightseeing pictures from beautiful South Carolina on the chat wall. It was clear from all the comments and questions posted that the outstanding […]
The post Coders and Billers Gather for Day 2 of the HEALTHCON Regional Conference appeared first on AAPC Knowledge Center.
Education, networking, and good times drew hundreds of medical billers, coders, auditors, and other healthcare business professionals to an AAPC regional conference today. The three-day conference, Oct. 4-6, convened in Charleston, South Carolina, but this is a hybrid event, allowing in-person or virtual attendance. Attendees from all parts of the country signed into the AAPC […]
The post HEALTHCON Regional Prepares coders and billers for the Future of Healthcare appeared first on AAPC Knowledge Center.
Attendees spend two days learning about risk adjustment in a value-based healthcare system. Following Day 1 of Riskcon, Day 2 of AAPC’s two-day boutique conference convened virtually with medical billers, coders, auditors, and other healthcare business professionals — all eager to learn how to take the risk out of risk adjustment. The first challenge was […]
The post Medical Coders Gather for Day 2 of AAPC’s RISKCON appeared first on AAPC Knowledge Center.
Clinical trials have a place for medical coders. Research is a big job market for healthcare business professionals.
The post Clinical Trials Have a Place for Medical Coders appeared first on AAPC Knowledge Center.
There is no such thing as a coder who knows it all. If your coder claims to be able to code every specialty, and you let them, you might want to get your checkbook ready to pay back some recoupments. There are over 70,000 ICD-10 codes and 10,000 CPT codes. The wealth of knowledge is simply too vast for one person to be able to accurately code multiple specialties and maintain an acceptable level of accuracy. Just as doctors specialize because there is simply too much to know about the human body and the selective area of focus they pursue, coders need to take the same considerations into place while specializing. Coding isn’t solely the application of various codes, it requires the coder to possess an in-depth knowledge of anatomy, physiology, and procedures.
A patient needing a knee replacement wouldn’t go to a urologist nor would a patient with a bladder issue go to an orthopedist. Yes, the urologist learned about knees and orthopedics in medical school and as such would have a rudimentary understanding of the specialty. However, they haven’t had the higher level training and deliberate repetitive practice to become an expert in the field of orthopedic surgery.
Similarly, a coder has to learn a little bit of every specialty in order to pass their certification exam. However, in order to truly master a coding specialty they need to immerse themselves in that field. There isn’t time for one person to do deep dives across a multitude of specialties while keeping abreast of all the changes and updates on top of maintaining a knowledge of all the specific rules and guidelines that each payor has in place. If I’m a provider I would want someone who has the same level of specialization that I have coding my cases, not someone jumping from specialty to specialty with surface level knowledge of each field.
Asking a coder who is unfamiliar with a specialty to start coding in that discipline because they are an expert elsewhere is asking for compliance and revenue troubles down the line. It might require a bit more effort to have coding specialists in each field, but down the line you’ll be thankful that you did.
The post Generalist Coders – A Fallacy appeared first on The Coding Network.
Ever since the publication of the Office of Inspector General’s (OIG’s) portfolio “Medicare Needs Better Controls to Prevent Fraud, Waste, and Abuse Related to Chiropractic Services” in February 2018, chiropractic services have been on the OIG’s radar for improper payments. So, what can you do to avoid the OIG’s scrutiny and keep the auditors from […]
The post Clean Chiropractic Claims Require Coders to Know Where It’s “AT” appeared first on AAPC Knowledge Center.
Ever since the publication of the Office of Inspector General’s (OIG’s) portfolio “Medicare Needs Better Controls to Prevent Fraud, Waste, and Abuse Related to Chiropractic Services” in February 2018, chiropractic services have been on the OIG’s radar for improper payments. So, what can you do to avoid the OIG’s scrutiny and keep the auditors from […]
The post Clean Chiropractic Claims Require Coders to Know Where It’s “AT” appeared first on AAPC Knowledge Center.
As many healthcare organizations seek to have their billing and coding staffs work remotely, active attempts to compromise their organization’s data, via phishing and malware, are being perpetrated by foreign actors. While many organizations seek to keep some continuity by allowing their team to continue performing services from home, they have left themselves open to severe security risks. Google has announced that in the past month, these malicious attacks have dramatically increased.
Is your organization adequately prepared from a security perspective to have your coders continue working remotely? If you have not validated that your existing security protocols are up to legal and best practices standards, then perhaps now is the time to rethink your current coding setup.
Click Here To Learn More and Start Coding With TCN
Google warns of government-backed cyber groups targeting healthcare organizations | TheHill
The post Are Your Remote Coders Secure? Google Warns of Covid-19 Cyber Threats appeared first on The Coding Network.
Cross training sounds like it should work. A coder is a coder. Why pay a new coder to work on Orthopedics when you have two OB/GYN coders with extra capacity? The job title is the same, the job itself is the same, the software/system access/workflow are the same. Yet this thinking can get a practice in to trouble from both a compliance and revenue standpoint.
Like any job, the more you do it the better you should get at it. While this may hold true for a coder consistently seeing work in the same specialty, it doesn’t apply to the ability to code all specialties in general. How can spending 5 years coding cardiology procedures qualify someone to code neurosurgery cases? It doesn’t; there are too many differences in the codes being selected, the physiology and anatomy involved, and the rules and guidelines issued by the payors claims are submitted to for reimbursement. Likewise, if a coder is spending too much time touching an abundance of disciplines, they won’t have enough experience or specialized knowledge to be proficient coding any one thing.
Training a coder in a new specialty isn’t as simple as letting that coder code by trial and error. Proper training requires a thorough understanding of the medical specialty, all types of procedures and associated illnesses and conditions. This should all happen well before that coder is allowed to start coding. Once that coder is ready, they need to be treated as a freshly minted coder and undergo regular audits and reviews. This process takes time and effort from a management standpoint and diverts resources from your coders’ regular specialty.
All too often coding departments don’t have the time and resources to properly train their coders in the areas of work they regularly perform. Providing minimal additional training in another specialty is often a fools errand. There are no guarantees that your coder will be able to learn a new specialty and code at an appropriate accuracy level. Allowing a coder to attempt a new discipline while submitting those claims for reimbursement is a sure fire way to increase denials from payors, lower reimbursement due to undercoding, allow for providers insufficient or incorrect documentation to go unchecked, and possibly open up your organization to compliance exposure.
While cross training on its face may seem like a good idea, the results are often disastrous. Practices hoping to save money by reallocating unused or underutilized internal coding resources will find themselves harming the stability of their revenue stream, creating additional follow up work after the denial of claim submissions, and, as a result, end up costing more for the practice than having utilized an appropriate specialized resource in the first place.
The post Why Cross-Training Medical Coders Can Get Your In Trouble appeared first on The Coding Network.
3 Major Considerations for Transitioning Your Coder to Working from Home
If you’re one of the many healthcare organizations that was rushed into sending your coders to work remotely from home, you know that right now business is not operating as usual. As a remote coding services provider for over 25 years, The Coding Network understands the challenges that many of you are facing for the first time. We’ve helped to identify 3 primary considerations you should focus your efforts on to gain some semblance of normalcy in working conditions.
1) HIPAA & Security – Do not forget that HIPAA exists outside of the office and that all coding done at home must be compliant with HIPAA regulations and any internal security procedures. Many coders might not have the ability to create HIPAA approved workspaces in their homes. For a complete discussion on this see our breakdown on Challenges in Making Your Workforce Remote. Coordinate with your IT and compliance to ensure that you’re transitioning your coders properly without creating any liability.
2) Productivity – The coding industry has been transitioning to a remote work environment for years. Many coders are now either completely working from home or allowed to work from home a portion of their week. Don’t let this fool you into thinking that you’ll receive the same productivity from your coders during this time. Even during normal periods there is an adjustment period, but in this Covid-19 climate there are additional factors such as childcare that will limit your coders ability to functional at full capacity during business hours. Moreover, coders may not have access to the same resources that they are acclimated to utilizing in an office setting. Understand that it will take time and patience for your coders to get to their standard productivity levels, and that it might not happen during traditional business hours.
3) Management – It’s one thing to manage an office of coders in the same building and collaborate directly with other departments like IT and billing that are under the same roof. The act of communication itself will become more difficult as you are no longer able to have face to face conversations, but constant communication will become indispensable to managing your team. Monitoring coding queues and individual coder performance will be essential to providing the essential feedback necessary to ensure that you do not fall behind in your work, even if your particular practice has seen a slowdown in work. Schedule regular calls and meetings, reaching out both on an individual basis and in group settings. Going that extra mile to foster a sense of teamwork and engagement will pay dividends and allow you to stay on top of your team’s performance from afar.
While these 3 areas of concern may seem quite manageable at first glance, until you’ve actually started to experience the change from in-person to remote based working environments, you will not understand the delicate balancing act that appropriately addressing each consideration takes. If any one area becomes unruly, you may find that you need alternative resources to fill certain gaps. Don’t hesitate to reach out to us at The Coding Network to provide the extra bench strength and expertise you’re looking for, not just in terms of coding services provision but in understanding the complexities of thriving in a virtual office setting.
The post Your Coders Are Home, Now What? appeared first on The Coding Network.