Medical coding faq
Eighty to Ninety percent of a hospital’s or a medical practice’s income today is cycled through medical insurance companies. These institutions require accurate coding to optimize their reimbursement from insurance companies. Quite often, physicians attempt to code medical procedures themselves, but there is sufficient available research to demonstrate that physicians tend to be suboptimal coders.
Quite often, nurses and billing clerks are assigned the task of coding, sometimes without formal training. It is not sensible to trust this crucial revenue-generating function to someone who may be under-qualified and under-trained for this job. In what other business would one delegate the most important financial and regulatory functions of their institution to an untrained employee?
In today’s regulatory environment, these very same hospitals and medical practices quite often do not have the time or the budgets to keep abreast of the latest regulations, as well as developments in Medical Coding. While you may currently be doing your coding in-house, you need to ask yourself these questions:
- Are we maximizing re-imbursement for all the patients we treat?
- Are our existing coders on top of their game?
- When was the last time we sent them elsewhere for specialist training?
- Are our coders well versed with the appropriate modifiers?
- Are we over-coding, which could possibly cause an audit down the road?
- Is my staff always behind, and always playing catch-up, regarding coding issues?
- Have I done a cash flow analysis, to see how much I would save out-sourcing our coding to an external coding service such as Lloyds, as opposed to paying for an in-house coding department?
If you are asking yourself any of these questions, it is time to contact Lloyds and outsource your coding.
By using our Team Lloyds, here’s what you will gain:
- Accurate and ethical coding
- Maximum reimbursement
- Lower costs, volume based pricing
- Reliable and dependable medical coding
- Enhanced performance
- 100% HIPAA compliance
- Strict confidentiality and security
- Expertise in the latest medical coding technology
- Rapid deployment and set-up of services
- Capability to manage high volume of work
- Short turnaround time
- Competitive edge
- Quality process
- Access to specialized coding skills
- Feedback and custom reports
- Clean claims and fewer denials
- Better control and co-ordination
We have three different models:
Model – 1
All you need to do is send us all the charts/documentation by Fedex. We do the coding and return the same via the web to you.
Model – 2
You scan all the documentation on the scanner at your end. We do the coding and return the same via the web to you.
Model – 3
We arrive at your facility, set up our scanners. We scan the charts/documentation email them over to our office. We do the coding and return the same via the web to you. If you prefer we do the coding at your institution itself, we can also set up for that.
We generally set up our technology to work as if we are an extension of your own office, in essence to be your virtual back office. Of course, if you wish a custom set-up, we will surely try to oblige. Once the patient documents/files/reports are electronically scanned, they are seamlessly and securely accessed by our coders, located remotely and using our secure FTP sites. Our teams first verify and validate the documents, split them into batches, and review them for completeness, quality and readability. Diagnosis, Procedure Codes and modifiers are assigned as per client descriptions and guidelines. Modification of certain codes may be made as per carrier requirement (e.g. certain insurance carriers require ASA code). Our diligent auditors and Six Sigma oriented quality control team audits the coded charge sheets, and process it further as required.
Step 1: With your agreement we will review your requirements and technology.
Step 2: We will sign an agreement that is mutually satisfactory to both you and us.
Step 3: Our tech support personnel will contact your office manager and/or I.T. staff to set things up.
Step 4: We will hold your hand through the crucial set-up process ensuring a seamless and smooth transfer.
With usage of VPN (Virtual Private Networks) to access your systems, our staff will perform the medical coding functions on your system exactly the way they used to be done, with the only difference being that they would be physically in our facility, not yours. All your processes and reports remain exactly the same with assured security and confidentiality.