What will you do without a superbill? What will you do?
Some coders I know are a little scared of the changes that electronic medical
records are bound to bring to their jobs. But there’s no reason to be scared,
because EMR also brings new opportunities to advance your coding career — if you
know the ropes.
When I learned that the American Academy of Professional Coders was hosting a
workshop in my area called ‘EMRs: What You Need To Know Now,’ I hightailed it on
over there. During the session, I learned how to shop for and select an EMR
system, how to work with IT-types to make it work for my practice, and I got a
glimpse of how EMR will change our medical coding jobs.
Right now, many coders focus on “rescue and recovery,” explained instructor
Shery Smith, CPC, CPC-H, CPC-I, CEMC, CCS, CCS-P, who’s also on the coding staff
of a large teaching institution that is using EMR already. “Rescue and recovery
coding” or “back end coding” involves tracking denials, finding the coding
problems that sparked them in the first place, and appealing the claim.
But with EMR implementation, more coders will become “front end coders.” That
is, they will apply their coding and regulatory knowledge at the front end to
make sure the EMR system is tailored correctly for their practice or department.
If you excel at educating clinicians on coding techniques, you’ll be in high
demand when you organization implements EMR, Smith says.
EMR will put a lot more of the coding in physicians’ hands, once your coding
staff has worked with your IT staff to tailor the system and incorporate the
correct prompts. “The new focus for coders will be coding educator and auditor,”
says Smith. And coders that are knowledgeable enough and comfortable enough to
audit and educate physicians are a “rare breed” in some places.
Meet the ‘Extroverted Librarian’ Coder: Savvy researchers who are good with
data, but can also communicate well with clinicians, IT types and other team
members will be in high demand, predicts Kaiser Permanente, Colorado’s James M.
Taylor, MD, CPC, who wrote the curriculum for the AAPC’s workshop.
In this kind of role, you might do a ten-record snapshot audit for each provider
every month and meet with them for individual education sessions. Or, you might
be available for their questions or what Smith calls “ad hoc education
sessions.” You’d have to be committed to staying abreast of updates that affect
your providers, and may be called upon to do “coding spotlights” at clinician
meetings.
Not the extroverted type? Don’t worry, says Smith. There are some back-end
coding issues that are best left to coders so as not to distract physicians from
patient care. For example, most organizations will probably have coders keep up
with changing carrier rules and haggle with carriers when denials do come up. If
you’re the type of coder who likes to sit in the back office and “just code,”
there will probably be a role for you — even in the brave new era of EMR.
Available on CD: From Paper to Digital — What Coders Need to Know Now.
