A community of 30,000 US Transcriptionist serving Medical Transcription Industry

Is Obamacare going to affect coding in a negative way? nm - Sam

Posted: Jan 12, 2015

Why would you think that? - nm

I have always heard that the reason...sm - Sam

[ In Reply To ..]
transcription was needed in the USA is because our medical care is insurance based and the doctors required a report in order to get paid, but that it was not the same in other countries with socialized medicine. I don't necessarily think Obamacare will impact the coding profession negatively, just wondering and looking for opinions.

That really has not been a concern. - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
That really has not been a topic of discussion in the healthcare community anywhere. I wouldn't worry about it.

I don't want to get into a pointless argument about obamacare, either, but I will say that if it is socialized medicine, it is not the same kind of socialized medicine in other developed nations.

Typed reports are not required for billing. They could be scrawled in ball point pen, and some are, but they are there for patient care, not for billing. Coders can read cursive handwriting, too, you know.

Getting paid by insurers is not going to get easier under obamacare. It will become more difficult. That will increase the demand and worth of folks who can code, regardless of their job function.

I am amazed that it hasn't already.... - had an affect on coding

[ In Reply To ..]
If the doctor can enter a diagnosis on the computer, why doesn't the code automatically come up - I know it's been almost 4 decades since I did coding in a small hospital, and I know that it has become much more complex than it was back then. I also know that insurance carriers often require a written copy of the patient's records to determine exactly what was done and whether the insurance will cover or how it will cover a particular procedure -
The medical transcription field did go down the tubes because of Obamacare and the original billions of dollars that were paid out in grants to clinics and hospitals so buy the equipment for the electronic medical record - these hospitals and clinics are now stuck with the equipment and are doing the best they can to get by because they can't afford to go back to in-house transcriptionists because they have so much invested in the electronic equipment.

Why that is not the case - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
A lot changed in 40 years. Medical coding involves more than plopping in some code number to match every big medical word in a list of diagnoses. Coding is a lot more complicated today.

Insurers might require a copy of the record, but in general do not except in certain circumstances, or if the provider has very poor coding accuracy.

EHRs were not mandated by Obamacare. They predate it by quite awhile.

The cost of EHRs has nothing to do with MT. MTs can still work within an EHR system.

Medical transcription was down the tubes long before Obamacare - positions outsourced and offshored

[ In Reply To ..]
YEARS ago.

Coding - Chavera

[ In Reply To ..]
Why would it? More people gaining access to healthcare is going to mean more work, not less.

Coding in the Future - Denise

[ In Reply To ..]
It will eventually be affected just as the mandates on electronic medical records (EMR). My brother-in-law is a physician and he told me over Christmas that his practice has purchased the preliminary portion of the software that recognizes the diagnoses that are input into the system and when he dictates the Discharge Summary it spits out a completed insurance claim and it is electronically submitted to the insurance company. So in one sitting, the physician will be able to electronically create the report and the insurance claim all in one fail swoop. It's unbelievable how many jobs this is taking away from people like us. I am giving one more MT company a shot, but when I leave this one that's it for me. I'm done....U-N-C-L-E!!!! Guess I will go to work for an insurance company auditing claims. Have to take a course but I have to do something. Good luck!

Working for an insurance company auditing claims - IS CODING.

[ In Reply To ..]
So much for it going away. Ho hum.

Physicians have always done their own coding, which is why someone has to hound them with audits. That is why we call that type of job "billing," not "coding."

You may think we do that kind of a job, but we do not.

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