Why Outsource Medical Coding?

Posted on January 31, 2015

Medical coding outsourcing is the easiest way to submit claims quickly and accurately, while enhancing your reimbursements and maximizing your revenue.

It is mandatory for hospitals, clinics and healthcare organizations to submit claims quickly and accurately. The two main factors that go into approving or denying a claim are speed and efficiency. For medical coding to be done right, high accuracy combined with lightening speed in the insurance claims filing process is required.

What is medical coding?

Medical coding refers to the process of documenting the healthcare services provided to a patient by a healthcare service provider like a physician, hospital or nursing home. A medical coder would abstract the details listed in the documentation, assign the relevant codes and create a claim for payment, which would be paid by the patient, insurance agency or CMS.

Medical coding for specialities

Apart from availing regular coding services, your hospital or clinic can also get access to medical coding services for a range of specialities like Radiology, Cardiology, Paediatrics, Physical therapy, Endocrinology, Pathology, Oncology and Gastroenterology to name a few.

Why invest in outsourcing?

Since medical coding is tedious and time consuming, it is best outsourced to professionals. A medical coding service provider in India can not only provide you with quality services, but can also help you to save on precious time, cost and effort which can be invested into your core business functions.

Through outsourcing, your hospital or clinic can get access to the services of certified medical coding specialists who can provide your hospital with a host of services (CPT, ICD and HCPCS (Level I and II medical coding) that will significantly enhance your reimbursements and impact your revenue. With a team of experts coding your claims across varied specialities, you will not have to worry about errors that result in denials, rework or lower reimbursements.

Top 5 benefits of outsourcing medical coding

  1. Avail HIPAA compliant medical coding services
  2. Reduce your current operating cost by a whopping 60%
  3. Stay assured of 99.9% accuracy in your medical coding
  4. Leverage the skills of trained, qualified and experienced medical coding specialists
  5. Get access to the latest medical coding software and best practices

The medical coding process

When you outsource medical coding to India, your service provider will follow a six step process that includes:

1. Obtaining patient details and information

The process will start with your hospital providing the service provider with the patient medical record by giving access to your practice management system or via data transfer.

2. Pre-coding

Before the actual coding process begins, the medical coder will refer to the different sources present in the patient’s files, like imaging reports, diagnostic test reports and the doctor’s transcription to verify the services rendered.

3. Assigning the codes

A team of medical coders who are skilled at handling CPT, ICD-9-CM, LMRP and HCPCS level II coding will be asked to assign the right codes. Codes will be assigned in line along with defined standards in order to avoid up-coding or down-coding. Next, the assigned codes and the diagnosis will be verified for compatibility.

4. Quality checks

Each step within the coding process will be subjected to meticulous quality checks. A skilled team of quality specialists will perform several rigorous audits to ensure maximum accuracy and prevent any down-coding or up-coding mistakes before the chart is provided to the customer.

5. Preparing coded charts

Once the coding is completed, coded charts will be prepared and forwarded to the hospital or clinic. These charts will be used at the claims processing stage.

6. Feedback

At the end of the process, you can send in your feedback to the service provider.

Get started with outsourcing!

Does your hospital or healthcare center want to leverage the advantages that only outsourcing offers? If yes, get in touch with us at Flatworld Solutions. Read more about our medical coding services and find out how we can reduce your time and effort, while increasing your bottom line.

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