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OUR
LAYERED APPROACH - CODING
"Keeping in mind that codes are money, medical
practice are losing thousands of dollars on coding errors,"
says Lisa Riding Nigbur, RN, CPC, former director of
education and technical development for the American
Academy of Professional Coders in Salt Lake City, UT.
In a random sampling of 2000 claims conducted by the
AAPC, 20% had the wrong code altogether, 38% were over-coded,
13% undercoded, and 17% billed for services that were
not even documented in the record.
The main cause of these errors was unqualified coders.
All too often practices hire untrained staff to save
money on salaries. As a result, they miss out on thousands
of dollars because of related coding mistakes. The American
Academy of Professional Coders certifies our coders.
This exclusive organization consists of roughly 20,000
coders nationwide and is the most widely recognized
authority on medical coding.
To attain this certification, each coder must have at
least two years of coding experience and pass a five
hour proctored examination.
All of our coders are AAPC certified because we believe
that this level of expertise is essential to professionalism,
to insuring
maximized reimbursements, and to maintaining a compliant
organization.
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WHY
USE CERTIFIED CODERS? >>
Coding process: our coders first match the charge sheets
with the patient demographic information. In the case
of Pain Management, they match the charge sheet with
both the demographic information and the case's procedure
notes.
When possible, the received charge sheets are checked
against the hospital's O.R. log. The charge packet is
then reviewed and coded by our AAPC Certified Coders
who assign both ICD-9-CM (diagnosis) and CPT (procedural)
codes as required.
The coders then link the appropriate ICD-9 and CPT codes
to ensure that they match and that they will generate
the proper reimbursement.
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