Exceptional Coders | Innovative Technology

A recent article in Medical Economics pointed out a persistent problem that some physicians continue to overcode and overbill, despite increased focus on the cost of healthcare and scrutiny by federal regulators.  According to the article, a new report by ProPublica, which analyzed CMS data between 2012 to 2015, a number of physicians overcoded on services provided under Medicare’s Part B program.

Aviacode joins American Health Information Association (AHIMA) in celebrating health information professionals during the 29th annual Health Information Professionals (HIP) this week (March 18–24, 2018).

Modern Healthcare reported in a recent article that health insurer and provider groups were complaining about the CMS' proposal to use more patient encounter data to determine Medicare Advantage plans' risk scores in 2019, saying the data could reduce payments for plans.

The medical coding industry has evolved since the mandate of ICD-10 on October 1, 2015.  There were concerns of increased backlogs, first-pass denials, and hiring challenges.  That wave of concerns has given way to a maturing outsourced coding industry.

A recent Kaufman Hall survey found that an overwhelming majority of healthcare executives (96 percent) stated that cost transformation is a significant need for their hospital or health system. Yet, over 50 percent of organizations surveyed either do not have a healthcare cost reduction goal or have such a small goal that it will not, in reality, transform their cost structures.

A recent Becker’s Hospital Review article stated that Catholic Health had agreed to pay $6M to settle overbilling allegations. A nursing home subsidiary of the health system allegedly submitted claims to Medicare for the highest and most expensive levels of therapy when that type of therapy was not medically necessary or was unsupported by medical records. The allegations against Catholic Health were originally brought by a whistle-blower under the qui tam provision of the False Claims Act.

The medical sector has been undergoing a series of interminable changes over the last few years. In consequence, healthcare revenue cycle management (RCM) market is set to witness a marked growth because of the rising need for timely bill reimbursements and insurance claims. Increased complexity in the medical coding process has led to the necessity of RCM solutions that help reduce billing errors.

Almost three-quarters of struggling hospitals are re-prioritizing revenue cycle management over a number of other initiatives. A recent Black Book Market Research survey uncovered that hospitals leaders are pushing revenue cycle management to the top of their priority lists in this last quarter of 2017. The Black Book Research indicated that 74 percent of struggling hospitals are putting population health, analytics, physician practice acquisitions and recruitment, and patient engagement on the back burner to reprioritize revenue cycle management through Q4 2017.

A recent nationwide ICD-10 coding accuracy and productivity contest by Central Learning demonstrates the fact that the medical coding industry still needs to greatly improve in order to achieve a respectable and acceptable ICD-10 and CPT coding accuracy level. Although there was a slight improvement in inpatient and emergency department accuracy, the ambulatory surgery accuracy score decreased. The average inpatient coder accuracy was 61 percent and the average outpatient coder accuracy was 41 percent.

The Advisory Board Company in a press release earlier this year announced that the average 350-bed hospital has an overlooked opportunity of up to $22 million in revenue capture. Improving revenue cycle performance to decrease missed revenue opportunity means responding to four market forces.