Exceptional Coders | Innovative Technology

Many Ambulatory Surgical Centers have clinics located in rural and metropolitan areas. While this allows their patients easier access to their ASC it, may create some medical coding difficulties for the centers themselves.

 

It is extremely important to maintain medical coding consistency within your umbrella of surgical centers. Inconsistent medical coding typically indicates that some medical coders are billing out incorrect medical codes, or they are under coding, which prevents ASC’s from being reimbursed the full amount warranted. If these inconsistencies persist, auditors may find it necessary to investigate the facilities and increase claim denial. 

 

Fortunately we have discovered four important secrets to maintain medical coding consistencies:

 

1. Consistent Trainings- Because most Ambulatory Surgical Centers have clinics in both rural and metropolitan areas it is extremely important that your medical coders are receiving adequate training. Many medical coders that are hired on have different backgrounds and if you strictly rely on your medical coders’ previous experience, inconsistencies will persist. Create a training manual for all of your clinics to help your medical coders know how your ASC practices medical coding.

 

To keep your medical coders on the same page it would be a good idea to hold frequent meetings. To ensure each clinic is receiving consistent trainings hold these meetings with the entire flock of medical coders your ASC has employed. Each clinic can be tapped into these meetings through a conference call or any other adequate source of technology.

 

HIM Directors, VP of Rev Cycle, Coding Managers, etc. Have become inundated with medical coding companies claiming to have the secret sauce that will rid them of all their woes. Whether it be reducing backlogs, helping with denials, decreasing AR days, any medical coding company you speak with can make it all happen. The question becomes, how do you do it? What makes you different than every other company knocking on my door claiming they have 95% accuracy and 48 hour turnaround time? 

 

There are 3 key differentiators you should look for when evaluating a medical coding partner for your healthcare facility.

 

1. Coders - How good are they? Are they domestic certified coders with years of experience? Are they off-shore coders? Domestic doesn't always equal better, however, make sure you understand where your coders are, and their level of expertise. 

This is post 5 of a 10 post series on the top 10 reasons you should consider outsourcing your coding.

Tim Ferriss, best selling author of "The 4 Hour Work Week" writes at length about the importance of outsourcing. This common practice will not only help to improve business operations, it also allows you the personal time and flexibility to live your life how you want. Ferriss makes valid points that are extremely applicable for us as health care professionals. One point is the value of having dedicated and available partners for your business. Finding a partner that is available 24/7 is a rare and precious commodity. Finding a medical coder who is available and dedicated to you and your account is near impossible. 

 

This is post 4 of a 10 post series on the top 10 reasons you should consider outsourcing your coding.

New York Presbetyrian Hospital and Columbia University had a data breach that affected 6,800 people in May of 2014 after a physician attempted to simply deactivate a personal computer on the network containing ePHI. Due to the lack of safegaurds within the network, the data was presented online for everyone to see.

 

Since 2009, when the HIPAA breach notification requirement took effect, nearly 31.4 million people have had their protected health information compromised in privacy and security breaches. The Office for Civil Rights (OCR), the HHS division responsible for enforcing HIPAA, has levied more than $25.1 million in fines against healthcare organizations responsible for violating the privacy and security rules. The constant threat of an OCR audit looms for every healthcare professional. One of the most common places to receive an audit is within the medical coding department of your facility. Reciving a medical coding audit is one of the largest concerns coding managers have, and a large reason why they keep their coding in house. The fear of transmitting ePHI outside of their facility and increasing the risk of compromising the information outweighs the benefits of outsourcing the medical coding to a company like Aviacode. This is a valid concern, and one that should be deeply vetted before ever considering hiring a 3rd party company to take care of your medical coding.