Whether you are contemplating on having a career in medical coding or would like to expand your skill in this profession, AlphaII.com has collated vital facts about what this process of transcription entails.
Top 5 Medical Coding Facts
1. Medical Coding Defined
Medical coding is a system made up of medical alphanumeric codes that are universally understood and implemented, in all operations of healthcare, and its procedures, services, equipment, diagnosis, and the like.
To put it to perspective, it is a form of a medical language translated into a comprehensive yet compendious series of codes. These codes increase operations in terms of accuracy and speed. All the more with the aid of medical billing software.
2. Medical Coding Is NOT Medical Billing
A misconception that many seem to have is that medical coding and medical billing are equivalents. This isn’t so. Medical billing is limited to the management of claims and payments for services rendered. In contrast to this, medical coding revolves around assigning standardized codes of descriptions of patients’ diagnosis, health condition, and treatment necessitated for the first.
In simpler terms, medical coding is a language, whereas medical billing is an action and/or a procedure pertaining to financial operations.
3. International Classification Of Diseases (ICD)
The International Classification of Diseases is, in itself, the system containing medical codes. It has an exhaustive list (to say the least) of alphanumeric designations and descriptions affiliated to a variety of diagnoses, symptoms and their specifications, disease and/or injury classification, and causes of fatalities.
It is the guideline as it is the guidebook which medical coders use in their profession.
The ICD, as the World Health Organization defines it, exists through medical decision-making backed strongly by the basis of scientifically astute evidence, through said coding system’s faculty of retrieval and analysis of health conditions.
From data gathering, information comparing and sharing amongst hospitals both in the local and in the internal sectors, utilising “location” and “timeframes” as variables, all of these are aggregated to provide nothing but the most accurate details transformed into medical code.
By this alone, you can have an inkling of just how broad the coding system truly is.
4. Medical Coding Equals Problem Solving
Adeptness in problem-solving is a crucial attribute that employers look for in to-be medical coders. This line of work is about problem-solving— assigning and matching codes to their actual descriptions terms of medical conditions, diagnosis, and treatments required.
It involves a lot of researching, fact-finding, and fact-verifying. Follow-ups are conducted not only with the attending medical practitioners and their patients but with insurance companies as well.
5. Flexible Healthcare Environments
Medical coders have an array of healthcare settings to choose from when it comes to employment. You can work in a hospital, a physician’s practice, surgery centres and other health care facilities.
At the same time, there are two general types of employment contracts: as an independent contractor (contract worker) or through an employer. Some medical coders are given the option to work directly from home whereas others clock-in in the medical facility (or an extension office) they are employed in.