Questions - Anonymous

Coding Info - Coder

None of the ads I looked at gave a wage.  What does an experienced (5+ years) coder usually make?  Are you paid on production, or by the hour? 

If you are an employee of a facility, pay is usually hourly.  If you do contract work, pay might be on production, and you can often make quite a lot more on production.  Coders who work on production are often highly motivated, have the ability to focus intensely, and typically work like tigers.   All coding requires very high accuracy, but contract work especially so.

Please do some research on the AHIMA and AAPC websites to get an idea of salaries.  On the AAPC website, it is on the "Resources" tab.  There is also a "what a coder does on the job" survey there.  Note that more difficult specialties, like interventional radiology, pay more than general small-office.  The average for a CPC-I in 2009 was, I think, almost 70K.  Entry level salaries were about 35K.

Is coding done on a computer?  What sort of software is used, and in your own experience, is it better to use than the disasters we're stuck with using for Transcription?

Coding can be done from a book or a computer using encoder software.   As with anything, encoder software is pretty much a reflection of your own glass-half-full or glass-half-empty world view.  I know coders who complain five times an hour about software that others think is a blessing.   Coding is done for some very serious reasons -- reimbursement, statistics, patient care, etc.  The software used is a necessity for electronic systems, and most entities are electronic because that's how they submit their bills.  You just need to adapt to whatever you face.

What was your school experience like?  Was it tedious?  Enjoyable?  Interesting?  Boring?  Do you look forward to going to work each day, or do you dread it?  Do you work a normal 40-hour week?  If inhouse, where are you?  Back office?  Upstairs?  The basement?  Under a stairwell (like many MTs used to be, when inhouse!)

I think school can be interesting and challenging if you are the sort of person who can conjure up a curious and adventuresome spirit.   Coding has never seemed boring to me because it is full of surprises and new things to learn.  Yes, I look forward to going to work.  Most coders I know work a regular 40-hour week, and a lot of them go home at night and code from home.  To me, that's a sign of people who enjoy their work and have a lot of it to do.

I still can't get a handle on exactly what coders do.  What is your day like?  Can you describe a single, typical coding job from start to finish?  How much reasearch you need to do for each aspect of that job?  Is it a sea of backtracking and looking up minutia, or is it fairly straightforward? 

Coders read the documentation for individual patient encounters and/or entire hospital stays and determine the diagnoses and procedures that were done.  They then look up the codes, making rational decisions and often sorting out complicated medical events and concepts.  They may observe the documentation for accuracy and for the degree to which it meets regulatory and reimbursement requirements, and they then may discuss with the provider to obtain clarification or improvement.  They then use code books or software to determine the codes to assign, a process which involves a lot of rules and rational thinking.  They may submit the codes on paper or electronically.  In some cases, the coder might also generate a bill, but maybe not.

It is fairly straightforward, if you consider solving puzzles straightforward.  It does help to be interested in never-ending learning, because you will need to do research.  I wouldn't call it minutia, though.  If you do not enjoy that kind of thing, and if you have a casual attitude toward accuracy and professionalism, coding isn't for you. 

CODING... - glitrgrammi

Pharmacy Techs are always asking me how they can be MTs - Nobody seems to be happy anywhere these days

I think no one is happy because employers have a - free rein to treat employees like dirt.

employers behaving badly - Viva

It's people in general behaving badly - This morning... - I had a terrible experience in the grocery store

Sometimes what I think this world needs is a - direct hit by a meteor the size of Mars.

meteor hit - Viva

Pharmacy tech - Anonymous

agreed... and - sm

Thanks so much for all of your replies! - (s/m) - Rocky Raccoon

To RR - Anonymous