Question

Mandatory Inservice

Your office is having a mandatory inservice on coding topics and has asked that all staff attend including the physicians. Do you think everyone should attend or only those people who do the coding and billing? Are there certain topics that apply to everyone? Why would the doctor have to come to this type of meeting. Explain your answer.

Answer 1

Medical coding refers to the process of converting diagnosis,procedures,supplies and equipments into alpha numerical codes. Medical coding becomes an important component in health care process to maintain effective communication between organizations. It helps in easy analysis of data related to diseases and treatment. Proper coding helps in research and education that helps in enhancing patient care. Both coding and billing acts as a backbone for health care revenue.

Billing and coding comes under the state and federal regulatory bodies especially Health insurance portability and accountability act. It helps in protecting patient confidentiality of health information. Medical billing helps in proper revenue handling in the hospital. Health care professional must possess adequate knowledge of claim follow up, denial process, appeals,bill adjustments.

It is essential to involve doctors in the inservice education related to medical coding and billing. Doctors are the providers of care and they must have a fundamental knowledge of billing and coding. Clear documents provided by the provider act as a rich source of information for a coder to make a complete set of codes and billing. Based on this only the patient will get reimbursement for their health care services from the insurance agency and the hospitals will get payment for the service render.