Jobs that involve coordination among different parties are prone to errors in the work performed. Healthcare documentation jobs are part of such jobs where there are different people involved - the physicians and medical transcriptionists or healthcare documentation specialists at various levels. Irrespective of the caution exercised; there will be some percentage of errors that impact of quality of healthcare provided. Hence, both physicians and transcriptionists should put some extra efforts to reduce healthcare documentation errors.  Healthcare documentation errors may be either from physician side or transcriptionist side. Poor quality of voice recording, lack of clarity in voice, heavy accented dictation of physician, and background disturbances are some of the reasons errors may occur from the physician’s side. Transcriptionist side errors may be a result of poor quality typing, a transcriptionist who is not perfectly trained, or proofreading and editing not done...

Medical coding is a good career option for those who are inquisitive and can work with perseverance. It is one of the most in-demand fields in the healthcare industry where a medical coder gathers information from a patient’s various medical records and transforms them into universally acceptable alphanumeric codes. Medical coding is critical for a healthcare facility as the codes given to the different procedures and processes performed on a patient are used to process the insurance claims to get the reimbursement for the services provided and they are also used to collect statistics to analyze diseases and treatments. Demand and Scope for medical coding jobs in India Healthcare is an ever-growing industry and the demand for medical coders is also on the positive side. At the moment, while I write this article, there are more than 6000 postings for medical coding jobs on a job portal. As India is the preferred destination for outsourcing medical coding jobs, medical coding...

For the people in medical coding jobs, it is very critical to distinguish between an established patient and a new patient to code accurately. To do appropriate Evaluation and Management (E/M) coding and adhere to the coding compliance for timely reimbursements, it is necessary to understand the difference between a new patient and an established patient. Established Patient: According to the CPT guidelines, a person who has received a professional service from a physician or healthcare professional of the exact same specialty and who belongs to the same group practice, within the past three years is an established patient. For the new entrants into medical coding, it is difficult and confusing to distinguish between an established and new patient, but it is very important to learn this. To understand this better, one has to know what a professional service is. For the purposes of E/M code selection, the CPT recognizes a service as professional service if they are ren...

One of the most difficult parts of revenue cycle management is the claims denial and it is an observation that CPT codes are the most common reason for denials. With thousands of ICD-10 codes, it has become troublesome for coders to remember all the codes accurately which results in few errors that ultimately may lead to claim denials. Claims denials reduce the income of the healthcare facility which warns for the reduction of errors by people in medical coding jobs . Given here is a list of strategies that can be followed to avoid common coding errors. Use the latest codes:  The CPT codes are updated annually by the American Medical Association with numerous changes and revisions in code along with modifications in coding guidelines. There are changes happening in the HCPCS codes and CMS coding guidelines also regularly. One who wants to reach the heights in medical coding jobs has to update himself/herself with all the changes and modifications in all aspects and do...

Medical coding is one interesting profession that takes you through all kinds of diseases and health ailments. If you are in medical coding jobs you get to code various health issues of patients ranging from regular illnesses to life-threatening diseases. One among those many health issues that have to be coded is wound management. Wound care includes management of all kinds of wounds including complicated conditions and other related issues like ulcers and sepsis. Wound care is also an important part of medical coding because it is a major contributor to the reimbursed incomes of the healthcare facilities. Hence, it requires proper and systematic review of the wound record, other ailments that impact the wound management like diabetes and any other prevailing infection, the procedures adopted and its progress. Here we shall take a look at some of the rules that help in proper coding and reimbursements. Modifier 25: Whenever there is a specific need for separate physician e...