Every medical practice or physician requires the services of a certified medical coder. These professionals are the backbone of any healthcare facility. They are the ones who help doctors, physicians, and medical practices get reimbursed for the services they provide. In short, they, along with medical billers, are the people who help healthcare facilities ensure a smooth revenue cycle. In today’s blog, we will take a quick look at what they do for healthcare facilities.
Responsibilities of a Certified Medical Coder
The main job of a medical coder is to update the records of a patient with the information required for billing and data management purposes. When a healthcare provider, nurse, or doctor offers a service, there must be a code that they should assign to every procedure and diagnosis. For instance, imagine that you are a coder. You need to review a patient’s health record who visits you for the X-ray. After completing the X-ray, the technician will take the patient chart and write the procedure there.
After that, the doctor will observe this image for diagnosing the injury source. The doctor will examine whether it is a sprain or fracture and may also prescribe the treatment like a cast or a sling. The coder’s job is to read all these notes to apply the right codes for:
- X-ray
- Diagnosis
- Examination of the doctor
- Treatment given
The codes that a certified medical coder assigns define how medical offices bill their insurance companies for the services they render. The coder’s main tasks include medical chart analysis and then assigning appropriate codes. These codes are also helpful when patients want their insurance companies to cover claims.
Some people think that medical coding and medical billing are the same things. However, they are different jobs. Some medical billing companies have one expert doing both tasks, but many prefer hiring separate coding and billing specialists.
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