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

offshoring of coding - susan

Posted: Oct 23, 2011

Is coding really being offshored? I was planning on going to Andrews School next year after I get my taxes back for coding. I would appreciate any information. I think coding will be a good filed to go into because I do not see all coding going overseas. Any responses would be greatly appreciated.

I do not believe it is a problem or will be - see message

[ In Reply To ..]
There is a person who frequently posts on this board that she worked for a company that was, I think, bought out by a foreign company, which then started trying to get the coding done overseas. That's the only instance I've heard of it happening, and I doubt that they have been very successful. We will never know because we don't have any of the facts. We don't even have the name of the company so we can check it out to see if there are any facts there to check out. But one foreign company outsourcing does not make an important trend in any industry.

My opinion - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
No way coding will be sent overseas. Maybe a few places will try it to save money, but they will bring it back because of all the mistakes made. Coders bring in money so coding it is very important to hospitals. Coding is very complex and you have to know what you're doing. I do believe that coders will eventually become coding auditors (kind of like transcriptionists are now editors) because of the EMR.

It isn't going offshore - Coder

[ In Reply To ..]
I am very familiar with the industry and I do not believe there is any evidence that coding will be offshored. Few facilities even outsource all their coding, although some outsource overflow.

Coding isn't like MT. In MT, you have one job that everybody does the same way, so anybody can do it anywhere. In MT, you have no need to see the entire medical record. MT also has no immediate and drastic effect upon reimbursement.

Coding is a lot more complex. It is affected by a ton of factors. It drives reimbursement and errors in the coding and billing have huge repercussions in terms of fines and penalties from the federal government.

Coding also requires use of the entire medical record. After HIPAA and after the recent breaches, there is an increasing reluctance to outsource and few facilities think offshoring is a good idea. Perhaps you might see it in a facility that is owned by, say, an Indian or Pakistani doctor, but you're not going to see it elsewhere. You definitely won't see it at any federal institution--the practice has been banned.

There are also a lot of jobs in coding that are not entry-level coding. That's what you are thinking of when you think of offshoring and outsourcing -- entry-level coding. Even if software advances can assist with that entry-level coding function, there are still going to be lots of higher-level jobs available.

A coding auditor is not comparable to an MT editor, either. I am an auditor now and the work is totally different.

I don't think you should worry at all about jobs in coding. You can get a job and advance into other careers that are in coding and related to coding. That's what we all do -- we get in and we advance. It is possible to sit in one job for 30 years, but it isn't necessary.

coding - cindy

[ In Reply To ..]
Are you happier as a coder than MT. How long do you have to go to school for it? I already went for something else in the medical field, but just wondering if it is a good paying field to go into.

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