Computer coding is not all that - and a bag of chips Posted: Oct 9th, 2018 - 4:31 pm In Reply to: Coding is being done automatically by computers. - Hopeless
I am a coder doing facility ER coding and we use two different software programs as encoders - one for the ICD portion and one for the CPT portion. You still have to know the codes. The software is not nearly good enough to completely code without errors. For example, a patient comes in with a stomach ache which is R109. At the end of the note in the Assmt and Plan section, the doctor may speculate about gastritis and the software will pick that up as the final code, which is not correct. He did not diagnose that. We still have to be able to read and interpret the record appropriate. When we are coding the past history, we don't just put everything willy nilly, there has to be evidence that the patient is being currently treated for the condition. The software won't pick that up.
100% computer coding is fairly far in the future unless they find a way to make the guidelines less confusing or computer software actually learns to think. Right now, the process still needs a brain that is capable of critical thinking.
Now, if it is a small practice that has a fairly limited scope, they won't need coders, i.e., a mental health clinic with 5 providers and you're going to use the same 5 CPT codes and maybe 5 diagnosis codes, possibly 6 or 7, but that's it. I've worked for that kind of practice as a biller.
A scribe is NOT a coder. A scribe follows the doctor around and writes down what the clinician tells them. Unless it's a practice with a fairly limited scope, scribing and coding are essentially worlds apart in terms of the work flow.
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