Top 3 Medical Coding Solutions for Improving Your Revenue Cycle
Accurate medical coding is crucial to a healthcare facility’s success. Coding errors can lead to denied claims, higher costs for patients and healthcare providers, and stagnant revenue cycles. Providers who employ certified medical coders and continue their training experience have fewer denied claims, improved compliance, enhanced fraud detection, timely reimbursements, and a more efficient healthcare revenue cycle.
Below are the top 3 medical coding solutions that provide actionable strategies for improving coding processes.
Invest in Expert Medical Coding Staff
Medical Coding standards, regulations, and technologies are continually changing. It can be challenging for coders to keep up with all the nuances without continual education and training. Investing in the education and training of medical coding staff is crucial to maximizing healthcare facility productivity and revenue. Coders with higher levels of expertise generally carry CCS certifications, while less experienced coding specialists might have CPC certifications. Some coders specialize in specific areas like inpatient and outpatient coding, surgery, radiology, and other key medical fields.
Why Continued Medical Coding Education is Essential
Coding experts need to stay current on the latest coding standards and technology by being involved in professional associations and networks such as AAPC or AHIMA, in addition to their certifications. Investing in the continued education of your coding staff allows access to regular training on changes.
Implement Robust Quality Assurance Processes
Quality Assurance is an integral part of medical coding and ensures your healthcare organization is compliant and remains penalty-free. A combination of internal and external coding audits helps to monitor compliance regulations, pinpoint issues, and detect fraud. Audits also highlight the importance of comprehensive documentation and communication between medical coders and healthcare providers. Auditing encourages accountability and continuous learning for organizations, while also preventing future errors, saving organizations time and lost revenue.
Leverage Advanced Technology and Automation
Many healthcare practices utilize technology and automation to optimize medical coding. There are several types of advanced technology available to assist in coding. CAC combines human expertise and technology, while autonomous coding is powered by AI and primarily uses automation. Autonomous Coding is emerging as a useful tool for healthcare organizations to diminish administrative burdens and improve accuracy. Leveraging AI to complete medical coding audits can impact the revenue cycles of healthcare providers by increasing coding accuracy, reducing denials and days in A/R, and increasing productivity. Most healthcare providers generally use a combination of human subject matter experts and technology.
Improve Your Medical Coding
There are many benefits for healthcare organizations when improving their medical coding. From increased revenue and compliance to decreased denials and days in A/R. Retaining expert medical coders boosts the success of a healthcare organization’s medical coding operation, especially when paired with internal and external coding audits. Certified medical coding professionals are adept at handling compliance and regulation changes due to their extended knowledge of the medical coding process. These coders often guide practices through the process of improvement and innovation, blending the processes seamlessly.
NYX Health – A Trusted Medical Coding Partner
Hospitals that outsource medical coding improve efficiency, reduce costs, and ensure compliance. NYX Health is a Revenue Cycle Management company providing comprehensive services for individual healthcare facilities, hospitals, and hospital systems. Our services include medical coding, prior authorizations, and physician pre-claim review. NYX Health allows their partners to focus on the core mission of their facilities, while they efficiently and strategically driving streamlined services and revenue growth for the hospital. Contact us today to learn how NYX Health can improve your medical coding processes and enhance your revenue cycle management, call (866) 826-1539, email [email protected], or visit nyxhealth.com.
